A/N: I could not resist writing another chapter about the small things in life. Warning: This chapter is quite (really) long, so take your time reading :) Don't forget to vote and comment!

[Couple Days - 2]

"Breakfast." Riko announced, unable to sound happy and upbeat about the meal because she simply had no energy to spare being lively. In fact, lifelessness was the closest word to describe her feelings now.

"Salad again?" Her boyfriend asked with a frown, looking up from his bowl. "When will we get some meat again? At least a hotdog?"

"I told you; no meat until I get my usual weight range back again." Riko sighed heavily as she plopped down on the chair beside her boyfriend. She knew it was the diet making her tired and grumpy, but Riko forced herself to accept fate as she stabbed in irritation at the vegetables in the bowl. "I weighed myself yesterday, and I've lost only 2 kg. We still have 8 more to go."

"I don't have to lose my weight with you, do I? I am satisfied with my weight." He answered, frowning unhappily at his greens, but stabbing at them with the same amount of happiness that Riko had –which was close to none. Having salad was a terrible way to start their weekend morning, but Riko had to grit her teeth.

They were currently in the middle of her diet program, because Riko had checked herself on the weighing scale recently and realised that her weight had climbed very much beyond anything she had seen before. The weight of a woman was never supposed to be revealed, but the number she had seen on the scale had been a 6 and 5. The most terrifying thing was that the bigger number had been on the tens' value.

The root cause of her terrifying weight gain had been easy to guess; her boyfriend.

Though they had been dating for 5 years now, and she was more or less used to his meat-filled diet enough to watch her own weight while she shared her meals with him, she had lost track of her diet recently –particularly after their extremely scrumptious dinner that she had prepared to celebrate his coming back from his business trip. Riko had been on the way to becoming a curvy woman (not that she had anything against them), and that was something she could not imagine for herself if she wanted to continue walking beside her very fit and handsome boyfriend in public.

She knew it was bad to have expectations of people of only certain body shapes being able to walk proudly beside her boyfriend, but it was still the expectation she imposed on herself nevertheless. Riko would not let anyone call her Vergil's girlfriend if she was fat and unable to keep up with her boyfriend's charms.

And thus, the diet program had start, which involved heavily cutting calories, and then actively burning the fats that she had accumulated. And because Riko didn't like to do anything alone in the house, her boyfriend had been forced to join in her green diet, which of course elicited much complains from the almost-carnivorous man at every meal.

"No, if I have to diet, you have to diet with me. This is your show of support." Riko warned.

"But I don't even support-" Her boyfriend's rising protest was wisely silenced off by himself when he caught sight of the deadly glare that Riko gave him. He was partially to blame for her weight-consciousness as well; the man was always saying that she was gaining weight, always saying her that she might get fat –as if the reason for her weight getting so out of hand wasn't because of her suiting his diet in the first place.

"Okay, I will support you, but you must not complain." He changed his words wisely, stabbing into another piece of lettuce and looking at it suspiciously as if it was poisonous. "The women in demon hunting are able to keep their weight not only because of the jobs they get. Everyone has to take a test to be a qualified demon hunter, and there is a standard set of exercise that trainees follow to get their weight and stamina to the required level."

"If you do it with me, I'll be able to do it." Riko answered, because it was the truth. While Riko herself was quite a determined individual, she found over the years that she was always able to do things better if she had her boyfriend in mind. There was nothing that got her more motivated than doing something alongside him –even if it was exercises meant for demon hunter trainees.

"Okay, then we start later today." Her boyfriend announced with a nod, and despite how tired Riko felt about the lack of carbohydrates she needed, she managed to find her mood lifting a little bit.

A few hours later, whatever mood that had been lifted had now crashed down straight through the ground, and all that was keeping her going was just pure teeth-gritting determination. At some points, it was not even determination at all; it was just mindless repetitive motions that her body did on automatic now, the screaming of her muscles all but ignored as she kept her mind blank, eyes focused on her boyfriend as they did the exercises facing each other.

"48... 49...50. Move on to your back, and start on our third rep of 40 weighted sit-ups." Her boyfriend counted, sounding completely fine. Of course he did; the guy was not only the best demon hunter in the industry, but he was also not completely human. Still, Riko strove to be like him; her goal was his stamina.

Riko felt like dying by the time the 40 sit-ups were done, but she refused to stop. It was just her weakness talking; her inertia and reluctance to move talking, and she refused to let them talk louder than her determination. She was going to cut those 10kg and go back to her usual weight range and be done with this damned diet. She knew recovering from this diet and intense exercise was going to be a real bummer, but Riko knew that she had the determination to get back to a normal diet slowly.

In fact, she had successfully dieted before; just probably never this intensive, and never in such a short amount of time.

"Do you want a rest? We have done quite a bit. You are actually almost at the level needed to pass the test for demon hunters, Riko." Her boyfriend asked in concern, but there was also a hint of surprise. Was he surprised that she was able to keep up with him for this long? True; she didn't exercise a lot these few days, but Riko was still a fit woman.

A slightly-beyond-her-weight-range woman, but still a fit one.

"I can..." Riko panted from the previous workout. "I can still go on."

"Maybe it's better that you rest. You haven't exercised in some time, have you? Your muscles will ache so much tomorrow."

"It's fine; I will regret and complain about it all tomorrow." Riko caught her breath enough to say, pausing to take a long guzzle of water. "What is next?"

She was glad that despite looking concerned at her well-being, her boyfriend still trusted her to know her limits as he nodded.

"Next are intervals to train stamina. We can run around the blocks. I will run with you to keep time and pace. You just have to follow me." He instructed, and Riko nodded.

The first interval round was set at a terrifying pace, but by now Riko's body was so numb from the sores that she could barely feel anything. Her mind was just full of signals from her lethargic body, and she left them blank, only following instructions on automatic as they started on the second round.

Vergil wasn't even sweating that much at all; and Riko felt like she had already lost –and replenished –enough sweat to water a field.

Just a little more, Riko. She motivated herself as she put one foot in front of the other, eyes dead set on her boyfriend's back. He had initially started running alongside her, but she had forced him to run first, because her motivation came in the form of chasing after her boyfriend's figure. You're going to be all slim and pretty and totally worthy of Vergil's girlfriend. Even his demon hunter friends won't be able to win you in the figure sector once you are through with this stupid diet.

That was extremely good self-motivation (not that Riko had anything against her boyfriend's colleagues as long as they didn't try to seduce her super handsome and charming boyfriend). In fact, she wasn't even sure why her boyfriend had not been attached the first time they met. How was it possible that nobody had wanted to hook in Vergil as a perfect boyfriend? Sure, he had his minor flaws about how he was just a hopeless carnivore, a complete unromantic and painfully honest man. But surely those things were easily forgivable if anyone had seen his cute side?

Still, Riko counted her blessings where she got them, and she knew better than to take her boyfriend for granted. She couldn't let her guard down and be all unattractive and fat, because her boyfriend could be whipped away from her side within a single moment by those shapely colleagues of his. Riko had met a few female colleagues of her boyfriend back when they were still staying with his twin, and their shape had threatened Riko's position as the most fitting person for her boyfriend in the room.

No, she wasn't going to let that happen, and in order to do that, she needed to run after him right now.

By their 5th round, Riko's heart was beating so fast that she was very sure that she must have sustained some internal damage given at the rate and hardness that it was hammering against her ribcage. She could no longer feel her body attached to her head, and actually wasn't even sure if she was moving at all. The only indicators that her limbs were still moving on automatic were the sound of her loud pants in her ears, and the sight of her world shaking with every step she took.

She began to admit to herself that she have never done such intense exercise before in her entire life, and that she might be reaching her limit when they finished their 5th round, and she was allowed only a 30 seconds rest before they started on their next round.

"You look terrible." Her boyfriend –ever the honest soul –observed with a tone of soft worry. "Do you want a rest?"

"Of course I look terrible." Riko panted, her mouth dry. But if she drank anything now, she was sure that she would puke it all out during the next round, and that was something she wasn't looking forward to at all. "I'm being put through exercise meant for demon hunters, and I haven't been training for the past twenty-plus years of my life."

"Maybe we should stop here. You have done quite enough." Her boyfriend suggested, and despite how enticing it all sounded in her ears, her mind screamed louder.

"No, let me finish the intervals at the very least. This will tone my thighs down." Riko answered, not liking at all how faint she sounded. Was it her, or were the heartbeats in her ear sounding softer? Was it her heartbeats calming down, or was it just her hearing slowly picking up less and less? A tiny alarm rang inside of her, but Riko put it on snooze. She would do the best she could until the next warning sign from her body.

Although, she wasn't very sure if she could detect any more warning signs given the way her body felt so completely detached now.

"Remember to tell me if you don't feel good. We will stop immediately."

"I feel terrible everywhere." Riko answered quickly with a sickly smile. "But I will be fine."

"Don't push yourself too much."

"Yes, mum."

At the sarcasm in her voice, her boyfriend's face turned indignant as if he could not believe that his concern for her was being played down. Still, he shook his head and looked at his watch.

"Let's go. Round 6." He announced, and waited until Riko pushed herself off the wall that she was leaning against, beginning to lead the way all over again.

For some reason, Round 6 felt a lot harder than the previous rounds. Instead of not being able to feel her limbs, this time she realised that she could feel them. And the scary thing was that her limbs felt icy cold and heavy as if they had turned into literal blocks of ice. A shiver ran through her body despite how much she was panting, and even though her brain told her that she was probably already overheated, her body was screaming two things: pain and cold.

Frowning, Riko forced her legs to slow down as she looked back up from her introspection to her boyfriend's back, thinking to give him a sign that she was finally slowly down and unable to catch up to his pace. For some reason, though, it seemed as if her jaws were frozen and locked in place, and even as the shivers now ran uncontrollably through her body, she could make no sound.

Then, all of a sudden, her vision darkened. Riko's alarm bells rang loud in her ears now that tunnel vision was setting in place, and all she could see was her boyfriend's head of pure white hair. He must have not heard her pants close behind her, because she saw him begin to turn around.

Riko's leg lost strength, and she pitched to the side.

The horror of her short life came when she saw the bright red vehicle rushing to her as she fell towards the road.

"-ko!" She heard the shout, and then her fall was stalled, and her body was thrown back like a ragdoll. A continuous loud blaring horn came into her ears a short moment afterwards, but Riko was now dimly aware of the fact that she was being pressed against a strong, hard body, an arm propping her up.

"Riko, are you okay?" She was not even surprised to hear her boyfriend's voice in her ear as she blinked blurrily a few times in the hopes to focus on something. The tunnel vision was opening up, but the edges were still blurred. She looked up to land her eyes on the concern glittering in beautiful blue eyes and a frowning face of an unhappy but very handsome devil who had stolen her heart.

"I think we might be overdoing it a little..." Riko heard her voice thick in her ears, forcing heavy arms to hold on to her boyfriend for more stability and support that she knew her legs could not give anymore.

"Damn right you are. I told you to tell me if you don't feel good." Her boyfriend said, shifting her in his hands because she was now putting her entire weight on him and feeling as if her body was now just a limp rag doll that could only be moved by an external force.

"I don't feel good now." Riko said, slowly getting her proper vision back. Her heartbeat had once more picked up volume in her ears, but she was thankfully still able to hear her boyfriend's words.

"You're too late for that, you idiot." He replied, and Riko felt herself manhandled until she was somehow draped over his back. Without so much a strain at all, her boyfriend straightened from the half-crouch position he had assumed, threading his arms under her thighs and had her easily handled into a piggy-back.

"Am I heavy?" Riko asked.

"No, because you are going to insist to do more exercises if I say yes." He answered in a tone that Riko understood as a no-nonsense-don't-you-dare-try-to-challenge-me tone. That tone had come out often when she had still been living with Dante, but now that they had moved out, he had less reasons to use that tone –at least until now.

"I'm tired, and I hurt everywhere." Riko complained quietly, resting her head tiredly against his strong, broad shoulder.

"Close your eyes and rest. I will tuck you to bed once we get home."

"Eww, but I'm still sweaty from the workout."

"You almost died, Riko. If I didn't turn around in time, you would be lying on a hospital bed. A sweaty, smelly bed is what you're going to have to take."

"Ok." Riko answered, because she was honestly a little bit too lethargic to care. She closed her eyes, and allowed the slowing down of her rapid heartbeat slowly bring her away into the darkness...

"Riko." A soft voice woke her up from her sleep, and even though she still felt terrible, Riko could feel most of her aching body now. A very heavy type of reluctance forced her body to be immobile, and the only thing she did to show that she was awake was to open her eyes and took a look around as much as she could without moving a single neck muscle.

"Riko, do you think you can feed yourself some porridge?" Her boyfriend's voice asked, and she looked up to see his face hovering above hers.

"I can't move a muscle. I can lap the porridge like a dog if you position me right." Riko exaggerated even though what she felt on the inside was actually something along those lines.

"Sounds like I have to feed you."

"Sounds like fun. You get to feed Baby Riko in her glorious twenties." She answered, not liking how hoarse she sounded.

"Have you ever been glorious even?" Her boyfriend mused, chuckling softly at her protest. Still, he set aside the bowl he had balanced between his hands, leaning forwards and helping to pull Riko's poor, uncooperative body upright to lean against the bed rest. There was no word shared between them as he took his seat beside her on the bed, took the porridge and began to scoop, offering her a bite.

"You suck at the feeding a sick patient thing." Riko complained, turning her head away from the offered spoon. "You are supposed to blow on it first to make sure that it doesn't scald my tongue."

"You are not a baby. The porridge is best eaten hot, and I already made sure to leave the porridge to cool a little before I woke you up." Her boyfriend countered, insistent hand forcing the spoon inside her mouth. Thankfully, the food was still warm and not scalding, and she greedily swallowed the mouthful without taking the chance to savour the taste.

They were silent for a short while as hungry Riko acted very much like a baby bird: opening her mouth to her mother-bird-boyfriend to show that she was ready for the next mouthful. The bowl was half-cleared when the hunger finally began to subside a little, and Riko felt much livelier than she had in a long time.

"Oh my." She exclaimed suddenly in mid-chew, surprising her boyfriend to a stop.

"What is it?"

"I just thought about the amount of calories inside this. And the fact that I'm probably not good for another intensive workout."

"You are still thinking about your diet?" The tone of disbelief probably should have warned Riko that her boyfriend had some words to say about her approach on this diet.

"Yeah. I have to get back to my weight range, don't I? If not, I'm going to be fat, and eventually you will be walking down the road with your girlfriend rolling with her fats beside you."

The suddenly look of epiphany on his face upon her words gave her confusion.

"You were doing this stupid diet just because of that?" He asked, and it ws obvious now to the both of them that he never knew that real reason behind her diet until now. Riko thought back briefly and realised that she really had never told him why she was so desperate to be in her usual weight range.

"Hey, it's not stupid!" She protested, and even though she secretly still wanted her boyfriend to continue feeding her the porridge, she did not protest when he rested the half-empty bowl on the bedside table.

"You idiot!"

The exclamation was something Riko had heard often from her boyfriend's brother, but this was honestly the first time she had heard something like that from her beloved. And worst still: it was directed at her, and the combined shock made her gape in silence.

"You massive idiot! You scared the living daylights out of me, and for such a stupid reason? I swear, Riko, you are going to be the death of me!"

"Hey!" She finally got past her shock to protest. "You can't call your girlfriend an idiot!"

"I damn well can, because you really are an idiot. Don't you know that your usual weight range is already lower than the peers of your same height? It's completely fine if you stay where you are now. There is completely no need for you to do this stupid diet and torture the both of us."

"But if I'm fat, then nobody will say that I'm fit for you anymore!" Riko protested, not really liking how whiny she sounded because she hadn't meant to come off that way. But being faced with her boyfriend's sudden outburst was a little too surprising.

"You don't need anyone to say that you are fit for me. I will decide if you are fit for me. And you, Riko Tatsuya, are fit for me in all sorts of shape, size and weight. Stop this diet instantly, or I will make you."

"Do you..." Riko's voice was small as she watched her boyfriend glare at her threateningly. She suddenly knew what it felt like to be Dante; to be glared at by her boyfriend for doing something stupid. "Do you really think that way?"

"You idiot, I don't need you to have any expectations of your weight as long as you are healthy and happy. I refuse to date a woman who is thin and light, and doesn't eat meat with me."

"But... only eating meat is not good for your health as well."

"Vegetables are a horror and it affects my mental health." Her boyfriend answered with such certainty that Riko could not stop her giggle.

"You will get fat if you don't eat your greens." She smiled, and it was clear to them that they were past her boyfriend's frustrated outburst when he smiled gently back at her.

"Then will I fit you if I get fat?" He asked.

"No." Riko stuck out her tongue at him. "If you get fat, I'm going to dump you and go after Dante."

"Then there's no worry, then." Her boyfriend answered with a chortle. "Dante will make you fat, and you will just have to come rolling back to me."

"Sounds like a plan." Riko forced her tired, aching body to move and hug her boyfriend. In all honesty, it was mostly effort on his end to keep her upright at the moment. "We can roll down the streets together and suffocate Dante with our fats."

________________________________________________________________________________

Riko's father was coming to stay for a visit, and even though she loved and cherished her darling daddy, she had not been looking forward to today. The reason for this being so was simple: her beloved boyfriend was not very close to her beloved father, and Riko was rather sure that her father silently disapproved of her boyfriend's choice of profession.

The worst, however, was that her father's most important condition for allowing her to stay with her boyfriend so many years ago (despite the fact that she was already an adult and capable of making her own decisions), had been that she would not end up sleeping with the man until after marriage.

It was a funny rule set by her father that did not exactly follow logic, because he had been totally cool about them having sex, but could not stand the idea of them innocently sleeping side by side each other on the same bed in the same room. Expectedly, Riko had started breaking this rule mere months after moving in to stay with her boyfriend and his brother.

"Did your father say what time he will be reaching?" Her boyfriend asked as he hoisted up the cardboard full of his belongings easily. The minute effort made his muscles flex slightly, and Riko paused briefly to enjoy the glorious sight of her macho boyfriend before turning back quickly to the task at hand.

"He said he will come after the concluding morning meeting of their trip." Riko updated as she packed the charger of her boyfriend's phone, his hair gel and all the small daily necessities that he had laid out around their room into another box.

They had decided to move his belongings into the guest to pretend that they had been sleeping apart all this while -mainly because it was practically impossible to move all or Riko's stuff into the guest room in half a day. Her poor boyfriend had been a little reluctant to take part in the charade that Riko wanted to keep up for her father, but she had begged him and threatened him with the possibility that her father might be so mad to find out the truth that she might be forced to move out of the apartment to keep them apart. Riko had a silent suspicion that her boyfriend's fear about her moving out of the apartment was less about him missing her, but more about him not being able to get anymore home cooked dinners. Whatever the reason, however, Riko had no desire to be forced out of the house by her father, and thus they had been packing and transporting all of her boyfriend's clothes from their shared wardrobe to the one in the guest room, moving his necessities there in hopes of proving that he had been sleeping in that room ever since they moved to the new apartment away from his brother.

"Then we don't have much time left, do we?" He asked casually.

It was already 1pm, and Riko was sure that the 'morning' meeting would have ended by now.

"We're almost done. It's fine. We just have to tell Dad that you don't do much personalisation to your room. That isn't a lie anyway." She answered, more to calm herself than him. The way her boyfriend was acting made it seem like he was rather indifferent between her father finding out the truth or not.

"There's only this box left." Riko announced as she carried the lighter box to the guest room, finding her boyfriend efficiently placing the necessities where he needed them, as if he really intended to be sleeping there permanently. The problem was that he was not even going to sleep in the guest room tonight; he had already volunteered to sleep on the couch and let her father sleep in 'his' room.

"You said your father is here for a business trip?" He asked casually as they silently got everything out of the boxes, arranging everything neatly in the guest room. His papers, documents and letters were all stacked up and placed nicely on the small table at the corner of the room.

"Yes. His company was contracted to build the new community hub and he is the head architect of the project."

"Will it be safe for me to assume that you were influenced by him to have an interest in architecture and interior designing?"

Despite the fact that her boyfriend was a little bit too late to go around asking her where her passion for interior designing came from, Riko was just glad that he bothered asking about it now.

"Yes. Daddy was a great architect when he was younger but he had to drop out of a few major projects to spend time with me and Mum. He always talked about buildings and their designs, so I fell in love with structures ever since I was young."

"But you didn't study to be an architect?"

"When I was in college, I was briefly into Art as well. Then I found out that interior designing was a combination of structures and arts, so I went in that direction immediately. I can't imagine myself being an architect now."

"As long as you have the passion for whatever you are doing." Her boyfriend said, folding the empty cardboard box down and throwing it behind the cupboard that leaned against the wall.

Riko was just done with the last things from the last cupboard, handing it over to her boyfriend to fold it down when the doorbell rang. An excited squeal escaped her before she could help it, and she smoothed her hands over her shirt quickly, hoping that they betrayed none of the physical labour they had been doing. One thing that had aided her father in being so good at his job was his sharp sense of perception. Because of this, Riko had been largely unable to keep anything from him in her younger years.

"Do I look okay?" She asked her boyfriend quickly, earning a simple nod before she bounded quickly out of the guest room to the front doors.

"Daddy!" Riko threw herself on the man at the door the moment she had it opened, glad to feel familiar and warm embrace. It was the same embrace that she had first been enveloped in when she was born, and she had to admit that this embrace was as warm as her boyfriend's.

"My dear girl, you are already almost 30. Please stop acting like you are still 3. Daddy is getting old and don't have the strength to greet you like that anymore." The laughing warm voice was as how she had remembered it; always warm and loving. Sure, she had been scolded by the same voice before, but it had always been for her own good.

"Daddy, I'm only 29! And you're not supposed to point out a woman's age. Haven't Mum taught you that?" Riko whined like the spoilt little girl she was fond of acting as whenever she was near her father. Still, she cheekily planted a big kiss on the middle-aged man's cheek, grinning when he rubbed the spot afterwards with an embarrassed blush.

"Riko, why don't you bring your father in? You can continue to attack him on the couch." Her boyfriend said from behind her, and she turned around to see him coming with a soft welcoming smile. For someone who was not very close and had honestly not exchanged much words with her father, Vergil was really acting very casual and easy and betrayed no inch of nervousness or stress at all.

"Good afternoon, Sir. I hope you had a fruitful business trip." He greeted, meeting eyes with her father.

"Good afternoon to you too. Have you been well? Still at the same work?"

Her father's questions drew the beginnings of a small frown on her lips. As expected, her father must really be pretty unhappy with her boyfriend's choice of occupation. It was strange, though. Her father had never displayed any particular dislike towards demon hunters before. Or did it have something to do with the simple fact that her boyfriend was the one who was a demon hunter?

"Yes, we have been very well. I am still doing what I always do. Thank you for always worrying about me. Please, come in." The invitation came back evened and betraying nothing about his feelings towards her father's words. She had never really talked to him about her suspicion of her father's source of dislike, but she got a general sense that even if he knew, her boyfriend would not even consider switching careers. Not that she wanted him to. Besides, her Vergil would never be truly Vergil if he didn't do demon hunting.

Her boyfriend took over the small luggage that her father had brought with him on automatic as Riko dragged her father in with the enthusiasm of a 10-year-old girl. Riko was quickly reminded of the days where she was just an innocent little child, hanging on all of her father's words like they were the most important ones of her entire life. Sitting him on the couch, she did not let her attention stray away from her father one bit, and completely forgot about making tea for the poor man until her boyfriend came back to the living area with a cup of tea.

"I placed your luggage in my room other there, Sir. You can sleep on my bed tonight; I will take the couch tonight." Her boyfriend informed formally, offering the tea at which Riko's father accepted.

"There is no need for such inconvenience." Her father's protest came as expected. "I can sleep on the couch."

"I cannot expect to let an elder sleep on the couch. Please, take my room." Her boyfriend insisted with the perfect amount of insistence that neither sounded placating nor too forceful. Riko smiled internally when her father didn't offer as much protest as she imagined him to have. She knew her father to be a rather prideful man when she was younger, but it seemed like the years had made her father humbler. Not that she did not like any version of her father; she loved all version of the man who had showered Riko with love when she was younger. The only reason why Riko had been able to grow up healthy and always happy and cheerful had been because her family life had been blissful since youth.

"Daddy, do you want a tour around the house? I arranged everything myself personally!" Riko said excitedly, suddenly remembering that this was the first time her father was seeing her new apartment ever since she moved out of her boyfriend's place. The last time her parents had been in town for a vacation, they had visited Riko when she still stayed with Vergil and Dante –and that place was really a 180-degree change to the apartment that they had now.

"I see you are putting your skills to good use as well." Her father laughed, allowing himself to be dragged to his feet. This had always been the basis of their father-daughter relationship; Riko always enthusiastically and happily dragging her father to places and explaining things to him with her high voice, and her father keeping up with her enthusiasm to the bare minimum.

In a way, wasn't her boyfriend very much like her father?

Riko was so engrossed in explaining the details of how she had planned her house to someone who actually understood whatever she was talking about –because her boyfriend was both not educated in the ways of designing and architecture, and also completely uninterested –that she almost forgot about the lie that she had to keep up when she dragged her father to the master bedroom.

"I spent the most time designing this room, Daddy." Riko declared as she threw out an arm with a flourish to the room. "Vergil and I spent the most time in this room."

"The two of you are sharing this room?" Her father's almost-immediate reply made Riko instantly conscious of her words.

"Oh, no." She rushed to say quickly. "But because I'm dominating the master bedroom, he likes to come over here for the extra space. We sleep separately."

Riko knew that she was alone for this tricky introduction of her room, because her boyfriend was currently missing –most probably nonchalantly reading his book back in the living area. He didn't seem very interested in listening to Riko's excited gushes about how she had planned the apartment and hadn't joined them in the house tour. But this also meant that Riko was alone in keeping up the lie at the moment.

"It's an awful big room to have for yourself, Riko." Her father noted, looking around with a critical eye. "Did you have a wall knocked down to combine two rooms to make this one?"

"Yes, I did." She said. "I was getting annoyed at the small room I had when I still stayed with Vergil and his brother. You know how small it was."

"Still, was there really a need to take two rooms by yourself?" Her father doubted, but didn't push the point of his daughter's apparent desperate need for space as he looked around the room at all her personalisation. "You really have gone far with your concept on classic modernism in this room, haven't you?"

"Yup. Vergil likes simple colour palettes, so I kept the crazy colours to a minimal. It's easy to the eyes and great to wake up to."

"Hm? But the colour scheme in his room was different."

"Oh, um... I designed that to be the guest room, but when we decided to knock down the wall between the two rooms here, the painting for that room was already done, so he gets that one."

"He didn't have it repainted?"

"He doesn't really mind it, actually."

"Really, Riko, he has been accommodating you a lot, hasn't he?" Her father noted.

"Hey, I have been accommodating him a lot as well!" Riko protested, not wanting to be viewed as the dominating party in her relationship with her boyfriend.

"I am sure you have." The answer was placating, but she followed her father around her room, his careful eyes casting all around. She held her breath in anticipation, wondering what her architect father would say about her choice of materials, design, theme and general atmosphere she had created with the furniture, curtains, bedding sheets and whatnot.

"What's this?" The question made Riko move towards the wardrobe where her father had opened to get a glimpse of the inside. Her need for him to clarify the reason behind his surprise fell away when he drew out the bathrobe that was clearly not her size. They had forgotten about that.

"Vergil's wardrobe is a little too small for all of his clothing, so I let him hang a few here." Riko answered, feeling her face grow red. The two of them had matching bathrobes that Dante bought as a moving-house gift, and they only wore it after engaging in their bed activities at night.

"And the files labelled 'Cerberus' and 'Sin: Pride and Lust'?"

"He must have forgotten and accidentally left some of his work files in my room."

"In your wardrobe?"

"Dad, you know how things go missing and turn up at the funniest places." Riko did her best to sound as natural as she could while her inside panicked. "Are you hungry? Let's go out for lunch. I want to bring you to this real good restaurant nearby that I know you will love."

She could easily see that her father was not convinced by her answer, but thankfully he nodded, putting the bathrobe back into the wardrobe and going along as Riko tugged at her father's arm to drag him out of her room –which she was beginning to realise was not as completely free of evidence from her boyfriend's stay as she had thought.

Still, bringing her father out for lunch was a good idea, and she managed to spend time talking and taking a walk around the neighbourhood as much as they could afford. Returning home in the evening, even Riko was surprised to find that her boyfriend had gotten himself into the kitchen and had whipped up a simple meal for the 3 of them.

Riko and her father talked more over dinner, with her boyfriend being cautiously but distantly engaged in the conversation –answering questions made his way without really trying to ask any questions back. She knew how hard it was for anyone unfamiliar to get past her boyfriend's initial guard, and couldn't completely blame Vergil for not being able to find a good conversation with her father. Still, she managed to talk enough for the both of them; recounting to her father of all the interesting stories that had happened to the both of them since her father last came.

Riko also learnt from her father that her mother –who was still at home taking care of the house –had recently taken up a new hobby of knitting, and her old home was currently filled top to bottom with yarn and yarn supplies. Knitted products were being churned out like a factory at home, and Riko laughed when she found herself duly warned that she and her boyfriend would be receiving a whole box full of her mother's products for Christmas.

Her father was also doing well at his company, even though he was beginning to consider about retirement, to which Riko had reacted with small surprise. Sure, her father was already well into retirement age. However, her father was also one of the most passionate architect that she knew (not that she knew many to begin with), and having him give up the job of his passion was something that she couldn't exactly imagine.

Besides, he was a workaholic. Riko had inherited her tendencies to neglect many bodily functions when work got heavy from her father, and she couldn't imagine her father without architecture in his life. He was the type of man who would probably still be sketching designs and visiting the library to read more books about architecture even after retirement –she could already imagine that.

"Take a bath, Riko. You have been talking your throat dry." Her boyfriend interrupted their conversation with two opened cans of beer in both his hands as he walked into the living room, surprising her. Her boyfriend did not prefer alcohol much at all; he did not drink casually unless Riko wanted him to join her on occasions. To have him bringing out the beer willingly by himself...

She watched as he passed it to her father, then took a seat on the couch a comfortable distance away from them.

The cue was easy to understand, and Riko nodded at him to show that she acknowledged what he was making the effort to do. Patting her father on his shoulder and giving him what she hoped was her best puppy-eyed look, she smiled pleadingly at him.

"Daddy, please be nice." She said as she stood up.

"I have always been nice." Her father protested almost too innocently, taking a sip from the accepted beer. "Go take a bath, and take your time."

"I will, so have a good talk with Vergil." She bade, and left quickly with the silent hopes that her boyfriend's effort would eventually pay off and bring the two men closer to each other.

Riko was silently glad that at least he was showing some effort to get closer to her family. Her mother had already accepted him the first time they met, because Riko's mother was a very accepting and open woman who simply loved any man who could love and cherish Riko. Her father had been the challenge, and it seemed like her boyfriend was taking this challenge head-on now.

To make sure that the men had more time to talk things out and iron any problems that they may meet in their conversation, Riko made sure that she soaked for long in the bathtub, scrolling through her phone leisurely while she waited for time to pass. Eventually, she came out and was surprised to see 4 empty cans on the low coffee table between them, and 2 more opened beers in their hands as they exchanged simple conversation topics.

"Ah, Riko is out. It's time for me to take my bath, and I have to turn in. It has been a long day." Her father announced the moment he spied her, throwing the last of his beer down quickly. "It has been a good talk, Vergil."

"Likewise, Sir." The polite answer gave Riko mixed feelings. Had the two men not gotten close even after 6 cans of shared beer? Why was her boyfriend still addressing her father so formally; and why was her father not offering to be called in a more casual manner?

Still, it was nothing that she could ask at the moment, and she sweetly bade her father goodnight, giving the middle-aged man a goodnight peck on his cheek just for old times' sake, having her father chuckling happily at her daughter who hadn't seemed to grow old. They bade each other goodnight, and Riko suddenly found herself isolated in the master bedroom as she prepared herself for bed, listening to the sounds outside as the men prepared themselves to turn in for the night as well.

Her ears were careful to pick out the sounds of her father coming out of the showers, bidding a final goodnight to her boyfriend who had prepared to sleep on the couch. Riko laid sleepless on her bed, the lights in the bedroom turned off, as she heard the sound of the door of the guest room closing firmly. The lights outside turned off as well, and the entire apartment was filled with the silence of them trying to fall into sleep.

Riko waited listlessly, tossing and turning for the next ten minutes, humming quietly to herself and feeling cold lying on the bed by herself.

Then, ten minutes later, when she was more or less sure that her father must have already fallen asleep, considering how he had said that he had woken up early for the morning meeting, Riko tip-toed out of the master bedroom, crossing the closed guest room door to the living area. It was not surprising at all to find her boyfriend, laid out along the length of the couch on his side, a pillow tucked underneath his head.

"Hey," Riko bent over the back of the couch, poking her boyfriend's arm lightly, "are you asleep? I can't sleep."

Given how quickly he reacted to her touch and words, she was quietly glad to know that he was having trouble sleeping without her by his side as well.

"You know I can't go in. We could get caught." He whispered back, his aquamarine blue-eyes almost glowing in the semi-darkness that was intruded by bright moonlight from the window.

"But I can't sleep." She complained.

"Bear with it for a night."

"Come in. Let's not make tonight terrible for the both of us. Besides, I'm sure Daddy is asleep by now. I can just wake you up right before Daddy wakes up, and you can pretend to sleep on the couch."

"That is not a very good idea. Your father can wake up at any time of the night and find me missing."

"Please... You know I can't sleep without you. You don't want me to send off Daddy with a grumpy face, do you?"

"I also don't want to be chased out of this house when he realises that I am sleeping with you." His answer was evened.

"He won't. Sure, Daddy will be angry, but he loves me too much to want to make me upset by throwing you out. Besides, he also wouldn't want me to live alone in this apartment." Riko pleaded, tugging her boyfriend's arm now in the hopes to get him moving.

She was glad that despite his protests and rational arguments, she found him sitting up from the couch, then taking heed of her insistent tugging as he rose to his feet with a sigh.

"I will come back out once you are asleep, okay?" He said, and Riko got the general sense that she was being treated like a little girl who couldn't sleep without her favourite toy. In this case, however, her toy was her boyfriend, and this toy was going to come back out to sleep on the couch once she was asleep.

She guessed that it was the best compromise she could make out of him at the moment, and offered no protest as they went back to the room, and her boyfriend took his usual position beside her. Snuggling close to the smell of him and the warmth that he exuded, Riko pressed a goodnight kiss against his chest, feeling as he did the same to the top of her head, and closed her eyes.

It did not take long for Riko to fall asleep in the arms of her lover.

An hour before sunrise, the door to the guest room opened, and Riko's father groggily found his way to the kitchen with half-opened eyes and a parched throat. Taking a leak and a cup of water, the middle-aged man felt much better and ready to go back into comfortable sleep as he made back for his room, then realised that there was something wrong.

Someone was missing from the couch, and he stood there for a short moment trying to piece the puzzles together with his sleep-addled mind. It clicked, and his confusion was good enough cause for him to deviate from his venture back to his room.

His suspicions were roused quickly as he turned his feet towards the direction of the master bedroom. He had had those suspicions in the previous afternoon when his daughter had been introducing the highlights of her room to him. Riko had catered the design of the room largely to her boyfriend's likes; and it was a little too much to call it her room. Rather, the feel that he had gotten immediately upon walking into the room was that it was their room. The items he had found in the wardrobe had only been more evidence to support his theory.

Opening the door to his daughter's room quietly, Riko's father took a quick peek inside and stood in small surprise when he saw a strange scene. His daughter was safely sleeping on the bed with the covers drawn up over her shoulders, and even in the semi-darkness, he appreciated his little baby's innocently sleeping face.

But that was not what had surprised him.

What made him stand there trying to understand whatever that had happened was the fact that his daughter's boyfriend was also sleeping in the room; but on the floor.

The younger man was in an uncomfortable position in the floor, his arm wedged under his head to act as a pillow. A short fatherly concern came, and Riko's father knew that the poor man would be suffering from a cold if he continued sleeping in such thin clothing on the floor that had been cooled down by the early morning temperatures.

Tip-toeing quickly into the room, Riko's father reached the side of his daughter's beloved, suddenly reminded of the talk they had shared the night before over a few cans of beers while waiting for the woman to be done with her shower.

Considering how much his daughter had talked for the most of the day, he had been surprised that her beloved had any more to talk about. But soon it was clear that some topics were only shared between men, and though the conversation had been casual and completely unremarkable, Riko's father remembered being struck by the sense of familiarity between them. He had not been sure how the younger man could make him feel like he had adopted a son all of a sudden, particularly when his daughter had expressed that her boyfriend was actually rather shy and not very sociable, but Riko's father had chalked it down quickly to the effects of the beer loosening up the man's tongue.

Still, the man was his daughter's boyfriend, and Riko's father didn't want her to be busy taking care of a sick lover. Bending down, he softly tapped the sleeping man on his shoulder, surprised at how shallow the man's sleep was when he woke up quickly, though groggily.

"Sir, is something wrong?" The young man asked in the same tone that he usually used around his girlfriend. Riko's father was once more reminded by the reason her daughter had fallen in love with this man. It was not news to anyone that girls who were the only child of the family tended to find men that treated them with utmost care mainly because of a psychological effect reminding them of the protection from their father. The way he had seen his daughter's boyfriend treat her had been something like that. Of course, there had been love as well, but Riko's father was quick to understand that his daughter was always looked after and taken care of by this man lying here on the floor.

"Why are you sleeping on the floor? You will get a cold." Riko's father whispered as the man sat up slowly.

"Riko wanted me to sleep with her since she didn't want me sleeping on the couch, but I didn't think you will be very happy with that, Sir, so I moved down."

"Sleep on the bed. You will get all sorts of sores and a bad cold if you continue sleeping on the floor like that."

"But Sir..."

"It's okay. I already had my suspicions. There's really no need to lie to me."

There was a short moment of silence in which Riko's father wondered if the young man had fallen back to sleep while sitting up.

"She didn't want to lie to you, but she was afraid that you would blow your top if you knew."

"I know. But my daughter has to get her wits from somewhere, doesn't she? I could more or less guess what was going on when I saw the design of this room. Besides, the guest room really does not have a sense of personalisation. I am an architect who has seen enough of buildings and interior designs to get a sense of things that goes on when I walk into a room."

"Will you really be alright with this?" His daughter's boyfriend asked with a doubtful look, as if cautious that he might change his mind a few hours later after another nap.

"The reason I didn't want her sleeping with you back then was because I didn't want my Little Riko to get used to sleeping with someone she had dated for less than a year. If the two of you broke up, she wouldn't be able to sleep for months. But now that the two of you have been dating for the past 5 years, I don't think sleeping together or apart will make any difference. So; go up and sleep, because she will kill me if she knew I found you on the floor and left you like that."

"She wouldn't. She loves you." The younger man answered, but it was clear that he had been holding back the cold for quite some time when he climbed quickly back under the covers once given the permission.

"Unfortunately for me, she loves you as well." Riko's father answered with a small smile. "You had better get used to calling me Dad, because I don't think Riko will ever be apart from you."

"I have no intention to be apart from her as well, Sir."

"Call me Ryosuke if you won't call me Dad." Riko's father answered, watching as his daughter's boyfriend put his arms around the sleeping woman, and in sleep-addled reply, the beautiful woman stirred and shifted herself towards the new source of warmth, putting her arms around her boyfriend as well. "And please continue to always be careful at your job, because I really don't want my daughter to call me crying one day to say that something happened to you on a mission."

"Is that the reason why you keep asking me about my job? She was worried that you might not like demon hunters."

"It's not demon hunters I don't like. It's the demons." Riko's father walked back to the door, taking a quick look back at the couple on the bed, in each other's arms. His darling daughter had once hugged him like that in her sleep, but it was now clear that the man who would put his arms around her now was not him, but her boyfriend.

"And it will be you if you do something dangerous and make my daughter cry."

"I won't, Mr. Ryosuke." The reply came as Riko's father put his hand on the doorknob, pausing to look one last time at his daughter and her boyfriend. He met aquamarine blue eyes, not surprised to find unspoken and unbending strength there.

"You might have met demons of all sorts in your mission before, but if you hurt and make my daughter cry, you will find that I am the scariest demon you will ever meet, Vergil." Riko's father decided that this warning was 5 years too late.

Before he closed the door, however, he found himself adding one more sentence.

"But don't worry, because I will also be a scary demon to anyone who tries to harm you."

________________________________________________________________________________Riko's phone vibrated as she was packing up her immediate area that had been dominated by her papers and documents during the meeting that had ended only 5 minutes ago.

"Riko; your phone." Her colleague Samantha informed just in case she hadn't taken notice of her phone where it had been placed in a large bowl in the corner of the meeting room. It had been office rule since Day 1 of her work that no phones were allowed at the meeting table with them during meetings. All employees had to deposit their phones at the bowl in the corner of the meeting room and only collect it on the way out of the room.

"I'm sorry, could you help me check who it is calling?" Riko replied, hurriedly packing her mess.

It had been her turn today to give a presentation on her monthly-compulsory design, and though she usually did not hate these presentation meetings, she was slightly annoyed at her luck because the meeting was scheduled right before the annual company gala dinner. This prevented Riko and her teammates from having the luxury of time to start preparing much earlier in the luxuries of their homes. As it was, everyone in her team had brought their dresses and makeup to the office to dress up before leaving for the hotel together.

"It's your boyfriend, unless you have someone else named 'Darling'." Samantha answered with a knowing smile. Everyone in the office knew by now that Riko was a hopeless romantic little girl whenever it came to her boyfriend. It was not an exaggeration when even the youngest intern with them at the moment, David, knew that the invincible, infallible and perfect-in-almost-every-way Riko Tatsuya was a complete little girl when it came to her lover. It was quite an unexpected but still rather welcome side of Riko that her teammates had been forced to acknowledge, because her darling was often her battery charger that made her turn up in the office on Mondays looking completely happy and ready for work.

"Oh no, he must be calling to ask about the address of the hotel." Riko exclaimed, stuffing her papers quickly into her file.

"Leave it, Miss Tatsuya. I will gather everything and leave them on your table. Go pick up your call." David The Intern picked up the still vibrating phone and hurried over to her side with a smile, always ready to please.

Riko did not know that David had actually had a small crush on the capable, beautiful lady before he had learnt about how dedicated and head-over-heels she was for her long-time boyfriend. He -along with the many teammates on the team -were looking forward to seeing her plus-one tonight at the annual gala dinner for the first time. The mysterious boyfriend had always skipped out on the previous ones with excuses that he was busy, and thus the team had been pleasantly surprised and secretly looking forward to see the man when Riko had announced that the man was free and intending to attend this time.

"Thanks a lot, David. I owe you one. And also, I told you to stop calling me Miss Tatsuya." Riko received the phone with a bright smile, dashing quickly out of the meeting room since she didn't want to be overheard.

"Hello?" She picked up the call shortly after running to the stairwell where she could talk on the phone in peace.

"Were you busy?"

"The meeting ended 5 minutes ago. I was packing up." Riko answered sheepishly.

"How was the meeting? You had to present today?" Her boyfriend asked with faint concern which made her happier than she already was. Despite how nonchalant he seemed about her work, he at least still knew a thing or two.

"It was good. I prepared well." She said just to be humble. Back before she met her boyfriend, she would have excitedly bragged about how well she had done because her team leader had praised her yet again for being innovative, diligent and an overall asset to the team. But she had known her boyfriend for years now, and one of the best thing she had learnt from him was utter humility. How had she learnt? From comparing him with his braggart brother.

"That is good. You have worked hard."

Really, sometimes Riko felt that her boyfriend's praise was so much more important to her than her team leader's praise. The ultimate reward to her hard work was not being acknowledged by her peers or boss. No, it was receiving a praise like this from her boyfriend that put her immediately on cloud nine.

"Oh, you are calling for the address of the hotel, aren't you?" Riko said quickly to change the topic just in case she died of happiness in the stairwell.

"Yes. I thought you would be leading me there, but circumstance seem different."

"I'm sorry! I didn't know the meeting would end so late when I told you I would bring you there. I will text you the address of the hotel in a while. Please dress nicely, okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to turn up naked."

"If you turn up naked, I'm going to have a hard time stopping myself from jumping on you. Much as the offer is tempting, I decline." Riko answered with a laugh. "But I'm sure you know how to dress nicely. It is your brother who doesn't know how to dress appropriately to the occasion."

"Dante has his moments of clarity, but they are rare." Her boyfriend answered with a light tone. "I'm sure you have to hurry back to your team now. Don't let me keep you."

"Okay, I'll see you later! Try not to be late."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

They hung up, and Riko hurried back to her table after sending her boyfriend the address, finding her documents all neatly arranged and piled on her table. Her teammates were already beginning to dress up in preparation of the dinner, and some of the guys were already changed into their formal, handsome dress shirts and in the midst of getting their blazers and tuxedos on.

"Riko, what are you doing still dressed like that? We aren't going to wait for any princesses to fix herself up!" Her team leader Leonard emerged from his office, straightening his pure white dress shirt that honestly showed his broad shoulders off well.

"I'm sorry. I'll be as fast as I can!" Riko apologised as she grabbed her dress and makeup bag that had been brought down from her home specially, dashing through the corridors towards the ladies room where she was sure to find her other female teammates dolling themselves up.

She was not wrong, as she opened the door to the ladies to meet a chaos of women dressed nicely and squeezing to get a good view on the mirror to put on their most spectacular makeup.

"Riko, you're going to be late!" They greeted her enthusiastically as she squeezed through the small washroom to the bathroom stall to change in peace.

For this gala dinner, Riko had specially gone out to buy a beautiful new dress for herself. She had not done so for the past years, but this year was special and different.

This was because she had been nominated the most prestigious award that her company offered to their employees: the Kingsley Award. The Kingsley Award, named after the founder of Kingsley Interior Designs, was given to the employee who had submitted the best design and achieved the most notable success in the industry in the past year. It was an award decided by not only the upper management of Kingsley Group, but also many world-famous industry leaders that Riko only dreamed of meeting. To receive the Kingsley Award was akin to getting a free-pass to many more brilliant projects, recognition from the industry, and a guaranteed promotion.

Riko had figured that even if she did not win the award tonight, she still had to look good losing, and had bought the expensive dress without much hesitation.

Besides, her boyfriend had agreed to appear for the dinner in his best suit, and she wasn't going to look like a frump walking beside him.

When she finally walked out of the bathroom stall after changing, a hush filled the washroom, paired with staring eyes that made her instantly self-consciously look down at herself. Was there a glaring stain or tear that she hadn't noticed? She had made sure to keep the dress in a clean carrier, but what if something had torn through the bag?

"Riko, are you attending your wedding dinner, or are you going for a gala dinner?" Samantha exclaimed. "You look like you're going to steal our husbands and boyfriends tonight!"

Riko laughed self-consciously, glad that it was nothing wrong about her dress that had motivated the silence in the ladies. "When you guys looked at me like that, I thought something was wrong with the dress."

"You're thinking of getting the Best Dress award even if you don't win the Kingsley Award, aren't you?" Mikki asked when Riko squeezed into the small space beside the woman currently attacking her natural curly hair with straighteners.

"I was not thinking about that, but it will be a good consolation." Riko answered easily, opening her makeup bag and beginning the process that would honestly take some time, because she had planned to seriously dress to impress tonight.

"I honestly don't know how you manage that figure. I've been dieting for the past half year, and I am not even close."

"I just make sure that I watch my weight very carefully. I found that I was getting too heavy recently, and tried to diet with my boyfriend, but it was too much and I fell sick. The funniest thing is that I lost all the extra weight by being sick because I had no appetite for any food."

"Poor girl! What did your boyfriend say?" Samantha, all done with her make-up, joined the conversation as she helpfully plugged in another straightener to help Mikki with her hair.

"He called me an idiot. It was the first time he ever called me that." Riko said, faintly frowning at the remembrance.

"I find it hard to imagine; mostly because of the fact that I have never seen him ever before. You have never even showed us a picture of him before! Your phone wallpaper is just of your hands, and we can't recognise a man from his hand, can we?"

"No worries." This time, Riko smiled. "I will make sure to introduce him personally to everyone so that you will recognise him if you see him even at the other end of the street the next time."

"He is really finally coming today?" Mikki asked, seemingly surprised.

"Yes. I told him not to be late so that I can introduce him to you guys before we take our seats."

"Oh yeah, you are not sitting together with us this time, are you?"

"Nope. I am sitting at the table with the other nominees from the other branches. I wish I was with you guys, though."

"Don't make me jealous, Riko. You will also be sitting at the same table with Mr. Kingsley himself! None of us here have ever had the chance to do that before."

"Please go ahead and take my seat. I'd much rather sit with you guys than feel stressed out sitting with the big boss." Riko answered, expertly drawing her eyeliner. Since she was out to impress today, she made sure to draw the lines thicker, longer and sharper.

The gossiping conversation continued even as Riko did her makeup steadily, not one to be distracted with talk even while she did her work. Her other teammates joined in the gossip, and even though Riko soon became aware that she was the last to be done with her makeup and hairdo, none of them rushed her. She even found herself helped to her hairdo as they talked and she gossiped about her boyfriend. Rather, Riko found herself gushing over her boyfriend as usual.

Eventually she was done and the team regrouped once more at the lobby of her office, the ladies were met with compliments of their efforts. The team of 8 was split up equally in 2 cars, and the respective drivers chauffeured them to the hotel where the ballroom had been booked especially for the gala dinner. Riko was not surprised at the grandeur of the ballroom and the decorations around it, for the Annual Kingsley Gala Dinner was not only a celebratory dinner of a successful year for the employee, but also a show of dominance that the Kingsley Group had over the industry. Riko's company was the biggest one in the industry of interior design, and they were not afraid to show off their status by inviting many other esteemed guests, investors and associated partners.

It was soon that the reception started, and the crowd at the spacious lobby outside the ballroom grew. Riko went around to exchange talk with the people that she recognised, offering her humble greeting to a few of the upper management of partnering companies that she had previously worked with before. It was a social dinner, after all, and Riko could not expect to remain alone in this lobby full of guests waiting for the door to open.

She had just managed to regroup with her teammates, however, when hands covered her eyes from behind gently.

"Surprise, I'm here." The person greeted, and Riko tore away the hands that covered her eyes quickly, spinning around in true blue surprise to find the white-haired, handsome man in a casual open-suit standing in front of her. Her boyfriend had said that Dante had his rare moments of clarity at times to wear appropriate attire for the appropriate events, and Riko was doubly surprised that today was one of those days that he displayed that clarity.

"Dante? What are you doing here?" She demanded, however. The man looked like her boyfriend in his smart clothes, but Riko knew better than to let the attire fool her.

"Attending this party as a plus-one." He answered easily, easily resting his arm on her shoulder as if it belonged there naturally. "Won't you introduce me to the hot ladies you have behind you?"

Aware that her teammates were now surprised into silence at Dante's sudden intrusion on their conversation, Riko turned back with a sheepish smile, and stepped aside a little to introduce the man who was still acting completely chummy with her with his arm around her shoulders –though it was something she had gotten used to after living with him. Dante acted like this with everyone that he was familiar with, and physical contact was something he did not shy away from.

"Guys, this is Dante, my boyfriend's-"

"Dante Sparda at your service. Ask Riko for my number if you girls want a good time. I'm free to be all your plus-ones anytime." The natural flirt was here again, and Riko could not help but roll her eyes. Trust the man to be preying on her teammates.

"Dante, make yourself useful then, and go get us some drinks to get on their good side." Riko said. She had learnt to take advantage of her boyfriend's brother's flippant and flirtatious nature after living with him, and no matter how much the man protested, she knew that he would always end up doing whatever she said. Her boyfriend had said that it was some akin to a little boy never being able to disobey his mother's order, though Riko had not liked being compared to the thought of being this grown man's mother.

And thus, as expected, the protest hung unspoken on the man's lips as he turned away sulking to the nearest waiter. Riko watched the back of the man's retreat with bemusement that always came whenever she watched either of the Sparda brothers follow her orders while sulking like a little child.

"You got the handsome part right, Riko, but I didn't imagine that he was like... that. Didn't you say that he is not very sociable? He was talking to us alright. A little bit more flirtatious than I imagined." Samantha's question had Riko turning back to face her teammates who either had shocked expressions or perplexed ones hung on their faces.

"Hmm?" She questioned, wondering what the shock and confusion in regards to Dante was about. "I haven't told you guys a lot about Dante, have I?"

"Have you drunk a little bit too much?" Even her team leader Leonard asked. "You talk about your boyfriend every other day. He certainly had not come across as I imagined him."

"But I haven't talked much about Dante before, have I?" Riko asked, but the sudden epiphany struck as she fell into stunned silence, quickly repeated the introduction that she had made just a little while ago.

Dante had interrupted her introduction, hadn't he?

"Oh no, you guys have it wrong." Riko said with a laugh. "Dante is my boy-"

"Drinks for everyone. And a special hard one on the rocks for you, Pretty Riko. When are you going to drop by to make me some of that godly meat stew again?" Her boyfriend's brother seriously had a knack for good timing and bad habit for interrupting people in the middle of their speech when he came back with drinks at which her teammates received with partially amused, partially surprised expressions. It was as if they were surprised to find that their most capable teammate who always harped about her boyfriend was actually so delusional when describing the good characteristics about him.

"So, Dante, what are you working as?" Timothy asked, setting the start for a getting-to-know-him conversation that was meant for Riko's boyfriend.

"Oh, me? I've been hanging around. The money really finds their way into and out of my pocket at equal pace." The nonchalant answered was paired with a smile meant to charm, but what was the point of charming men? Furthermore, Timothy was already married and currently waiting for his wife to join them at the reception.

"You mean you are unemployed? But I thought Riko said you were the Chairman of some Circle or something..." Mikki remarked with obvious surprise, though the surprise was shared when Dante turned to Riko who had been waiting for a good time to interrupt into the conversation with her announcement.

"You talked to your colleagues about me, Riko? I'm honoured! Did you tell them about how I rescued the President's Daughter the last time?"

"That was almost 15 years ago. Stop bragging." Riko sighed, having heard about that story at least a hundred times. For the records, it had been her boyfriend who had noted that the President's Daughter had been acting funny and made the hypothesis that she had been controlled by a demon. All Dante had done was to show up all heroically, stab the demon after her boyfriend had done most of the work forcing the demon out of the President's Daughter. And then, expectedly, Dante had claimed the credit.

Riko knew by the uncertain looks hung on her teammates' faces that their impression of her 'boyfriend' was steadily going downwards from the high-horse that she had created for Vergil from her words. Sure; she had exaggerated a little of her boyfriend's good qualities, but Dante was quickly falling short far away from those standards.

"Guys!" She raised her voice a little, making her voice sharp and punctuating so that they would stop trying to interrupt her and keep the misunderstanding going. "Dante is not my-"

It was probably godly irony at work when someone interrupted her speech by bumping lightly into her, paired with a voice that was very familiar.

"Dante, what are you doing here? And have you seen Riko around?"

"Vergil, thank goodness you're here." Riko couldn't be gladder to see him standing behind her, a hand on his brother's shoulder to grab his attention.

"Why; has Dante been doing anything terrible?" Her boyfriend asked suspiciously at her exclamation, exchanging serious, acknowledging nod towards the general direction of her teammates who were all silent in surprise at the sudden arrival of a strange newcomer.

"Oy, I'll have you know that I am behaving very well. Ask Riko if you don't believe me." Dante answered in her stead, protesting quickly, but Riko's anxiousness to make things clear took precedence as she grabbed her boyfriend and dragged him till he was standing next to her, and she clutched at his arm like a lifebuoy.

"Guys, this guy is my boyfriend, Vergil Sparda. Dante is his brother! You guys are misunderstanding something." Riko declared strongly to the surprise of everyone. Realisation set in for everyone except for her poor boyfriend who watched alternated his gaze between Riko and her colleagues with curious silence.

"Jesus, you guys thought I was Riko's boyfriend?" Dante solved that curiosity in a moment by cutting in with a chuckle at the teammates who were now taking in the resemblance between the twins. "God, that's practically impossible. Riko is Vergil's property. He will kill me if I even think about trying to hit on her. Besides, she's like a sister to me. It's kind of disgusting for me to want to get it on with my sister."

"There is no credit for you to phrase it like that, Dante." Riko's boyfriend answered with a slight frown. "Hitting on Riko is not a disgusting idea."

"It is for me." Dante answered, oblivious to the audience they were having.

"You haven't answered me. What are you doing here?"

"I'm a plus-one for someone attending the dinner as well. I didn't think you two would be here."

"Don't you know Riko is a designer in Kingsley?"

"All I knew was that she left the house for work and came back with food when you two still stayed with me." Dante answered nonchalantly.

Riko could not help but manage a small roll of her eyes at her boyfriend's brother's indifference. They hadn't met up for months, but this brief meeting was giving her a very good review on the reasons why she never truly missed his presence around the house ever since they moved out.

"You said you are a plus-one for someone attending the dinner. Where is she?"

"I don't know. I came without telling her to surprise her. And of course, for the free food and drinks."

Riko could feel the impressions that her teammates had of Dante going down a steady downward spiral, but at least she breathed a secret sigh of relief to know that her colleagues now knew that her boyfriend was Vergil and not Dante. In fact, by juxtaposing Vergil with his brother in this conversation, Riko was glad that Vergil came off much more desirable and charming.

"Then go find her." Vergil ordered. "You shouldn't be leaving your date alone; particularly if you are only here as a plus-one."

"She'll survive. Besides, I kept your date occupied while you were busy being late and letting her be lonely." Dante answered nonchalantly.

"I was not late. Go, Dante."

The short, punctuated two words was paired with a look of clear expectancy that even Dante could not resist obeying. Riko watched as her boyfriend's brother finally bid his easy farewell to the group, turning away to be devoured in the crowd.

"I greatly apologise for my brother's manners. You must have all been put on the spot with his nonsense." Vergil turned back to her teammates to apologise humbly with a polite bow. "Let me introduce myself again: my name is Vergil Sparda, and I am here as Riko's plus-one. It is an honour to meet all of you for the first time. Riko has told me much about all of you."

There was honestly no one except her boyfriend (at least in Riko's knowledge) who could manage such a formal and impressive introduction particularly after sending Dante away. Her smile grew wider when she watched the expressions on her colleagues' faces change, knowing that their impression of her capable boyfriend was reaching into the skies.

"It is great to meet the man of Riko's constant topic of conversations." Leonard took the lead in introductions, offering his hand with a business-like smile. "I am Leonard, Riko's team leader."

The handshake introduction came around, and Riko was glad to see the female members of her team giving her secret thumbs up as if to approve of the man she had gotten for herself. Though she never really needed other people's approval to date her boyfriend, Riko felt doubly prouder now that her colleagues had approved of him as a fit for her.

"So," Leonard started the conversation again, as if forgetting Dante ever happened, "what are you working as?"

"I am a freelance demon hunting consultant. I haven't signed any contracts with any companies yet, but recently I am considering offers from Isrilia and Nerilia."

The effect of name-dropping of the two biggest company in the demon hunting industry that even non-industry people like Riko's colleagues recognised was obvious.

"I heard Isrilia only takes the top 5 performing hunters from college." Timothy remarked, clearly impressed.

"They do offer exceptions to hunters with special consideration." Her boyfriend downplayed the awe easily and humbly –cutting an even more admirable figure.

"Riko said you were the President of one of the demon hunting circles." Mikki put in with a tone that clearly expected confirmation of sorts.

"She sells me too well. I am only the Chairman of the Devil Incarnate Circle."

"You have got to be kidding me. The Devil Incarnate Circle?" Riko was surprised that even her team leader seemed to recognise the significance of that circle. While Riko knew that it was impressive for her boyfriend to head a circle in the demon hunting industry, was it really that impressive? Or was it a guy-thing?

"It is nothing, really."

"Nothing?" David piped up with a newfound glitter in his eyes. "It's every boy's dream to be a hunter in the Devil Incarnate Circle! I don't think anyone here has grown up without ever once dreaming to be a recognised hunter just so that they can try a hand at auditioning into Devil Incarnate."

"Most young boys admire what we do, but really; it is not all that impressive. We have Dante for a Vice-Chairman." Riko's boyfriend answered, which seemed to her teammates like another bombshell had been dropped on them.

"You are kidding me." Leonard said. "That guy just now... your brother is the Vice-Chairman?"

Riko now grinned, because she knew how often Dante received exclamations like these. Literally nobody would ever imagine that Dante was the leader of anyone, much less a Vice-Chairman of a demon hunting circle.

"My brother has his rare moments of clarity." Her boyfriend's answer was evened and understanding –probably from experience of meeting other's similar surprise concerning his brother.

The conversation continued, and Riko almost got jealous at the attention that her boyfriend was getting from her teammates. They were all acting like groupies, and even though she loved the fact that her boyfriend was being admired, she was also silently annoyed at how he was attending to their questions and seemingly ignoring her. Still, she behaved herself and gave a tiny internal cheer when the announcement for guests to take their seats in the ballroom came.

Bidding goodbye to her teammates quickly, Riko almost all but dragged her boyfriend to the table for the VIPs (and their plus-ones), greeting the others already at the table quickly before settling down with her boyfriend.

"You were really popular with my colleagues." Riko said, unable to help how pouty she unintendedly sounded.

"I tried my best." He answered. "You told me to be nice."

"You were a little bit too nice." Riko sulked quietly, looking over to the table that her team occupied. Dante was nowhere to be found, but she had no worries about not being able to spot the man because Dante was quite an attention-attraction whenever he appeared -whether he liked it or not.

"So you don't like me when I am nice to others?"

"I don't mean that, but Janice was all over you and you didn't keep her back."

"What is the point of making things ugly between you and Janice if I did so?" Her boyfriend asked as if his train of thoughts was only natural. Riko might have extended her sulking a little longer, but it was clear to her that her boyfriend knew exactly what she was sulking about when he took a sophisticated sip from his wineglass on the dinner table, looking all nonchalant. "Besides, you don't have to worry about me paying attention to any other woman except for you at this dinner. You look beautiful, Riko, and all the guys here have at least looked at you once tonight. I already have my hands full looking out for them."

It took awhile for Riko to understand the connotation that came along with the compliment that somehow did not sound like a compliment at all.

"Are you cautious that some guy will try to ask me out?" She asked with a barely hidden smile, feeling as if she had struck gold. He was feeling jealous and protective of her!

The uncomfortable silence and deliberate diversion of his eyes towards the door of entering guests was all the answer that she needed, and she could stop her jubilant grin. A few more Kingsley Award nominees with their plus-ones joined them at the table, and each time Riko and her boyfriend greeted them all politely, she gained secret exhilaration from every time her boyfriend sharpened his gaze on the other men at the table if they even tried to turn their heads towards her direction.

To fill in the time they had to wait for the dinner to officially start to usher in Chairman Kingsley, Riko whispered to her boyfriend about the achievements of the other designers at the table that had earned them their nominations for the dinner. Though he was as clueless about her industry as she was to his, he responded with the appropriate remarks that definitely made her happier. At home, he had never really showed much interest in her work, but she guessed that being stuck in a dinner sponsored by her company was forcing him to learn a little bit more.

"The project that you are nominated for; which one is it?" He asked after she was done introducing the last nominee that had joined them at the table.

"Remember that time I had to camp in the office for a week and you brought clothes for me when we met for dinner? That project." Riko explained in the best way she could to her boyfriend who did not know the details of that project.

"That one? You worked really hard for that one. I'm glad you are getting recognised for the hard work you put in."

"You also had it hard." Riko smiled, warmed that her boyfriend also acknowledged her hard work. "You didn't get to eat any home-cooked meal for a week."

"Yes, I did." He answered evenly. "But it was worth it."

"Yes it is. Do you think I will win?"

The standard reply of a supporting boyfriend was yes.

"No." Her boyfriend replied.

"What?"

"You described Mr. Cainhill's project very well just now. I think he might win." Her boyfriend gestured towards where Mr. Cainhill was currently sharing polite business laughter with his fellow tablemate beside him.

"You're supposed to support me!" Riko protested.

"I think it doesn't matter if I support you now or not. The upper management at your company will choose who they think is most deserving, regardless of who I support."

"At least say you have confidence that I will win or something!"

"But I don't. You worked hard, but not all success comes from hard work."

"You are terrible, Vergil!" Riko protested, crossing her arms. It wad truly so much like her boyfriend to make her feel happy for a moment, then hate him for being a complete unromantic blockhead in the next moment.

"I am honest." He answered, unrepentant. "But for what's worth, you are the best interior designer here that I know. Mostly because you are the only interior designer that I know well."

Riko found out that she had really adapted well to her boyfriend's antics, because she had developed a strong sense of selective hearing by choosing to hear only whatever she liked. Careful to maintain her composure in front of the so many people of her large company, the dinner started without a hitch. Chairman Kingsley appeared and was met with thunderous applause in the ballroom before the VVIP was invited to his seat at Riko's table, at which very humble introductions and business talk was made as the dinner started with a few entertainment events that honestly kept little attention.

Forced to keep up a polite, capable and charming character in front of the Chairman was tiring work, but Riko took to heart that at least her plus-one as acting his part perfectly well, answering the questions directed to him with such skill that an outsider might think that he was the one nominated for the Award tonight.

She might have gossiped to her teammates about her boyfriend being not very sociable, but the truth was that when he put his mind into pretending, he could be a damned good charmer when he wanted to. Of course, his brother's unending charm also came from the same source, though Riko found that her boyfriend's charm was much more dignified and sophisticated.

She was still in the midst of an internal monologue about how glad she was that her boyfriend had agreed to come to the dinner with her to calm her jittery nerves when the announcement came for everyone's attention.

"Now, we have the moment you have all been waiting for. The Kingsley Award has been a prestigious award given to designers who have put in their best effort and given nothing but satisfaction to their customers the past year. With blood, sweat and sometimes tears, these designers have not allowed setbacks to keep them down. Tonight, we celebrate their success together. Before we start, can I have a round of applause for all these brilliant designers? Even those who do not win the award tonight, know that all of you are already invaluable assets to the company, and we are blessed to have passionate designers such as you." The announcer's declaration was comforting and might have touched Riko's heart if not for the fact that it was already picking up pace steadily until she almost felt like bolting out of her seat.

She didn't know how her boyfriend knew about the sudden onset of nerves, but she was just very glad he knew, because his hand held hers under the table, giving a squeeze.

Turning her eyes away from the announcer who was currently opening the envelope containing the results while the applause in the ballroom died down, Riko looked at her charming boyfriend in the hopes to calm herself down.

"Smile, Riko." He leaned in close to whisper. "You have my support, so you will definitely win."

Really, her boyfriend was really a magician, because his words immediately replaced the nervousness with surprise and elation. Riko blinked, looking only at her boyfriend in surprise and seeing his gentle encouraging smile.

A moment passed, then two.

And then she suddenly realised that applause was all around her, and she looked around the table in surprise for any tell-tale joyful faces of a winner. What she saw, however, were smiles made expectantly at her. Chairman Kingsley himself was already on stage with the display trophy in his hands, and he was looking at her with a gentle smile as well.

"Miss Riko Tatsuya? Would you please come up to receive your award?" The announcer asked, and reality crashed into her as she stood up on instincts, then realised she didn't know what to do.

Panicking, she turned to her boyfriend, but it seemed like once again, he had read her mind. With the most charming smile hanging on his face, he stood up beside her, and wrapped her in a hug that immediately took her into a frozen state of shock. Above the shock of winning the award, her boyfriend's sudden public display of affection made her completely speechless and motionless as he pressed her head to lightly to his chest, the applause around them seemingly getting louder as if to encourage her boyfriend's show of affection.

"Smile, Riko. I told you would win. Now, you just have to calm yourself down and walk up the stage to get what's rightfully yours. Don't worry about the thank-you speech. You've already done well for the project; the speech is just another part of your presentation. Now, when I let you go, make sure you give your best smile, okay?" Her boyfriend's whispered words came right by her ear, only for her to hear, and she now realised that his sudden act had been actually to help her buy time to compose herself.

Forcing the wits back to her frame, Riko nodded softly in his embrace. Quickly, just in case the crowd thought that it was a little too weird for the boyfriend to be hugging her for so long, he let her go. Before she left, though, he leaned forward and left a kiss on her cheek so light that it might as well have been a greeting. It was a good thing, though, because anything stronger would have instantly dispelled whatever composure she had scraped back.

"Congratulations, Riko. You have done well." He articulated clearly –and it was the one congratulation that Riko decided that she cherished the most out of those that she received for the rest of that night.

A week later, Riko returned home after work. Humming softly to herself as she took her heels off and set them aside neatly, she almost had a bounce in her footsteps as she danced through the corridor to the living room, finding it empty. Her boyfriend had called her to say that he would be back after her, so she was not surprised to find the house empty. Her mood, however, was too high to be defeated by the silence of the house.

Skipping to the cupboard where they had stashed some leftover materials after moving in, Riko briefly tossed through the items before finding what she had been looking for. Still humming a happy tune, she took the photo frame –with the old photo of her, her boyfriend and Dante standing in front of the men's favourite dessert store. The old photo would be stored well somewhere safe, but the one that she wanted to put on display was not this one.

Drawing the photo that had been passed to her at work, Riko stared at it, a stupid smile drawing quickly on her face. If she knew how to whistle, she would already be whistling as she placed the photo carefully into the frame, then walked over to the mantle, setting it up there. Stepping back for a quick moment to survey the results, Riko nodded to herself and left to start preparations for dinner.

At the mantle that used to only sit her boyfriend's sword display stand now had two other objects. Beside the sword display stand was her trophy that named Riko as Kingsley Group's best designer of year 20XX. Riko had promised herself that this was not going to be the only trophy that she would receive in her many more years to go in the industry.

But what made her happiest was the newest item; that photo that had been taken that night.

David The Intern had really done her a great service this time with his photo editing skills.

The background had been blurred out, and the colour of the stage behind had been contrasted brighter to highlight the two main characters of the picture. David had sworn, however, that he had not photo edited anything on her or her boyfriend. They were both in their most natural glory. All he had done was to blur out the background and change the colour tone and contrast a little bit; but it was perfect –almost as if the photo had been taken in a studio by a professional.

The picture of them in embrace would forever be remembered, waiting for Riko everyday on her mantle.