A/N: Part two! 2 more parts of this mini story to go~ In this chapter, we will have 15 and 18 year old teenaged Nero with his Daddy!

[My Dad Is Vergil (PartTwo)]

Fifteen year old Nero Sparda wasn't even sure why he bothered trying to sneak into the apartment anymore when it was so painfully clear to him that there was absolutely no possible way that he could come back home without his father being alerted. Vergil Sparda was, after a demon hunter, and could even hear the smallest sound even in a rush-hour crowd.

"Nero." Vergil's voice was sharp and unforgiving, freezing the teenager halfway in his tip-toe-creeping from the front door towards his room. "What time is it now?"

"Err... 11pm." Nero answered, knowing that there was no hope in lying. Lying so blatantly would only get him lectured even more –and he was already not looking forward to what was to come.

"What time is your curfew?"

"9pm."

"How long is the allowance in curfew that Dante managed to argue for your sake?"

"Err... Half an hour."

"So?" Vergil hadn't even turned around on the couch –his back facing his son –but Nero already knew the level of disappointment and displeasure from the silently deadly tone from his father's voice. Nero had always known his father to be a very good defence lawyer, and had always been proud of that. But in situations like these, when Vergil showed his displeasure through the inflection of his intelligent sharp words, Nero prayed that his father would be a little more forgiving.

"But Dad, 9pm is really not fair. All my friends have their curfew at 11pm. They are able to go out and play at least until 10.30!" Nero protested. "Besides, this is the first time."

"What your friends' parents do with them doesn't matter to me. I set your curfew at 9pm, so I expect you to be home by 9. If you want to argue that you need time to travel back home, your uncle has already helped you argue to extend a 30 minute allowance for your return. Coming back at 11pm is way past your curfew."

"But it's not fair! Can't I play just a little longer more with them? Besides, it's not like I have anything much to do at home when I come back! You're always working on your cases until late at night, and Uncle Dante is always out."

"I set rules for a reason, Nero. If I let you come home later now, in a few years' time, you will start staying out. And soon, you won't bother to stay in this place anymore. I don't want this place to be treated as a hotel where you come back only to sleep and eat meals. This is your home, so spend more time here." Vergil's tone was final and unbending, but Nero had gotten the same trait from his father as his slight apology for breaking the curfew was now buried under a mountain of indignance, annoyance and anger.

"Why should I spend more time here?" Nero raised his voice a little in annoyance, gripping the strap of his bag a little more tightly. "There's literally nothing to do here! All I do at home is surf the net, Dad. I'd rather be outside playing with my friends. Besides, all we're doing is playing basketball. I'm not doing anything bad outside."

"Don't you raise your voice at me, Nero." Vergil warned, and from the back, Nero Sparda saw his father close the file that was carefully balanced on his lap, looking up straight ahead. By right, it should have unnerved him –that Vergil was giving this rising argument his full attention. Nero, and Dante in fact, had never won a serious argument against Vergil ever before, and whenever Vergil focused on an argument, Nero could never find any points to fight back.

But this time, Nero was annoyed and indignant, and so losing the argument wasn't something that Nero planned to do.

"If I don't raise my voice at you, Dad, you won't even talk to me! The only things you say to me every day when I come home is 'Welcome home', 'Have you eaten', 'Have you done your homework 'and' Sleep early tonight'. There is literally nothing else that you talk to me about at all!"

"That is no excuse not to come home. Besides, you cannot blame me for working so that I can support you and your idiot uncle."

"Then you damn well can't blame me for coming back late so that I don't have to face a woodblock for a father!" Nero burst out, slamming his hand on the nearby cabinet in emphasis of his fuse-lit anger.

"Don't be unreasonable." Vergil's tone was positively icy by now, and Nero felt cold needles poke in various places in his spine when his father turned around, and he met sharp blue eyes. The expression written on Vergil's face now was the famous lawyer poker face –the face that everyone was scared off, because absolutely no one knew what went beneath the surface. Well, at least no one who was still alive.

"Unreasonable?" Nero clenched his fists. "Unreasonable is when you have my arm hidden up every day of my life just because it's a little different! Unreasonable is when you ask me to pretend that I can't use that arm when I can, and when it's stronger than my left hand! You're the one being unreasonable and impossible, Dad. I'm just coming back late because I was playing basketball with my friends!"

"Enough." Vergil's piercing words could have skewered someone dry. "Watch your manners. We taught you better."

"Taught me?" Nero scoffed, too mad at his father to recognise that his words were overly rude and hurtful for a man who had taken special consideration of his every needs ever since his mother passed on. "I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that you taught me anything with your silent, zipped up mouth!"

Because Vergil Sparda was a half-demon, Nero could not prepare himself in time for his father's reaction at his words until the deed was done, and Nero was left with a stinging cheek. It was not the usual strength that Nero knew his father to have, but the slap had its effect on Nero as his hand cradled the sore side of his face, looking up in shock and alight anger at the blue eyes that stared hard down at him.

"I HATE YOU! YOU'RE THE WORST DAD EVER!" Nero shouted, the tears unconsciously crowding the corners of his eyes. Then, with his outburst done and his anger exploded, the young man ran into his room and slammed the door shut with a force that almost shook the building on its foundations, leaving Vergil standing silent and in painful realization in the middle of the living area.

But he wasn't alone, because Dante Sparda had chosen the most unfortunate timing to come back home. With the front door open, and Dante frozen in the doorway, staring at an equally frozen Vergil who now bowed his head and stared at his hand –the hand that had done the sin of hurting his own son –neither of the Sparda twins moved for a long time.

But freezing up and being kept unknowing was something that Dante didn't like to do, and so he forced himself out of his stasis as he finally closed the front door behind him, taking off his shoes quickly as he rushed into the living area, not even bother to take his coat off yet.

"What happened? Why did he shout at you like that?" Dante asked, obviously worried.

What made him even more worried was the fact that when Vergil looked up, a droplet of water rolled down an eye. The expression of blankness was pasted on Vergil's face, but Dante could see easily through the blue orbs that his brother was hurting, struggling and in pain on the inside.

"Vergil?" Dante's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't seen his brother like this in a long time. Vergil Sparda was, after all, the world's strongest man. A defence lawyer by day, his emotions were harder than diamond and his resolve was as unmovable as the strongest metal. A demon hunter by night, Vergil Sparda's tolerance for pain was extremely high. And when these traits combined to form one man, Dante Sparda never honestly expected his brother to be a very emotional man in the first place.

But the single tear that made its track down smooth cheek –Vergil being completely oblivious to its presence –told Dante completely something else.

"I-I need some time alone." Vergil removed the worried hands of his brother from his arm, turning away from the living area, away from the door that now hid an angry, rebellious and hurting teenager. "Please watch over him."

"O-Of course." Dante hesitated, but could say nothing as he watched the dejected father walk blankly out of the door that he had just arrived through –not even bothering to stop for a coat.

Feeling like he had walked into the Ground Zero of a large war, but having completely no idea what had transpired, Dante could not help his nagging feelings as he stepped carefully to Nero's door and gingerly knocked on the door.

"Go away!"

A crash signified that the young teenager probably had thrown something against the door.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I've got nothing to talk about that man! He's not my Dad!"

"Why are you saying that? Why were the two of you fighting in the first place?"

"Just because I was late by 2 hours, he started to say that I was unreasonable for wanting to stay outside so that I wouldn't be bored! He doesn't understand; how I'm just coming home with no one to talk to. I'd rather stay outside by myself if I'm coming home every day to face a piece of wood for a father! He slapped me!"

A jolt shot through Dante at the moment as he finally connected the dots, and quickly understood the reason behind Vergil's shocking reaction to his worried questions. He couldn't exactly blame his brother for acting the way he did, but Dante wasn't Nero's biological father, so he guess he didn't feel for the boy as strongly as his brother did.

But at least something was clear to Dante Sparda at the very moment.

At least a half-demon like Vergil Sparda could cry.

"You stupid boy." Dante sighed, leaning against the door as he shook his head. He wouldn't say that he was the best at communicating clearly, but at the moment he supposed he was the only person who saw things the most clearly. Particularly since Dante had been by his brother's side ever since Vergil's wife and Nero's mother passed on, Dante had been able to see Vergil through painful times as Vergil mourned the passing of his lover while taking care of the young, oblivious but confused son.

The years had passed from the death of Nero's mother, but the strength of attachment Vergil had for his son had never wavered.

Still, growing up and the phase of rebellion was something that wasn't about to evade Nero –and perhaps Vergil needed to start learning a little bit about that.

"Nero, with a father like Vergil, I'm really surprised at how stupid you are." Dante reiterated his previous statement once more, almost rolling his eyes in exasperation. "You've known Vergil for 15 years of your life. Don't you know exactly what he's like? He doesn't talk. He just doesn't talk. The only times I hear him talk properly is when he's on his job, and even on his job, he's not talking about his own feelings. Your dad doesn't know how to talk about feelings, you idiot. But he tried. 'Welcome home', 'Have you eaten', 'Sleep early'; they all sound like greetings and commands to you, but your father means so much more than that. Your dad and I lost our father pretty early, so our own Dad didn't get to tell us more than these. Of course Vergil doesn't know how to talk."

The silence on the other side of the door went on for so long that Dante wondered if Nero had actually fallen asleep or something.

"But he slapped me..."

"I don't know what you said to him, but it was probably all too sudden for him as well. He acted on instincts. Besides, I don't ever remembering him ever hurting you intentionally before, so this time is a bigger shock to him than it is for you." Dante admitted. "He was crying outside, you know."

"He...was?"

"He probably wasn't even aware of it himself, but there was a tear and his eyes were moist. He didn't even get a coat when he walked out to get a breath of fresh air."

"Whatever." Nero's voice was a little stronger now. "I don't care."

"Whatever floats your boat, Little Bastard." Dante answered with a shrug, satisfied with all that he had done, certain that he had done all that he could in his role as an Uncle. With nothing else to do, Dante paced back to his room, making sure that his retreating footsteps could be heard, and that the sound of his door closing was loud enough to travel through the house.

And then, silently, he cracked the door to his room open an inch, peeking out through one eye.

Nero didn't even take long to react at all. One minute after the sound of his bedroom door closing sounded, Dante spied the fifteen year old boy –fully dressed –silently opening his door, tip-toeing out and across the living area. Dante watched as Nero stood in front of the coat stand and studied the long black coat that had been left on the stand. Then, despite the fact that Nero was already wearing his own coat, the young boy lifted his father's coat off the stand, tucked it under his arm, slipped his feet into his shoes and was out of the front door in a wink.

Dante grinned to himself and closed the door to his room.

Dante supposed that Vergil had to count his stars that he had a twin like Dante. Similarly, Nero should probably thank god that he had an uncle like Dante.

He honestly deserved a pat on the back this time round.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Err... Dad?" The uncertain question surprised Vergil as he paused in the middle of writing his defence paper for Dante again. Once more, Dante was being sued for sexual harassment at the strip club not very far away from here, and once more Vergil was sitting in front of his laptop running through the entire happening clearly on paper while setting up the grounds for defence for his twin brother.

"Yes, Nero?" It was always a fact that his son's needs would be put before his twin's ones, and thus Vergil gladly turned away from the laptop, finding his son standing in the doorway to his room with a composure of what Vergil could only describe of as awkward.

"Can I... Um..." Nero started, but hesitated again, and Vergil saw that he was looking down awkwardly at his fingers.

"What is it, Nero?" Vergil prompted, a little curious. Eighteen year old Nero had gotten past his rebellious phase of his life, and was doing very well in college. In fact, Nero had done so well in school that his teacher had done nothing but sing praises for his son when Vergil last attended a parent-teacher meeting. The only source of concern that the teacher had about Nero was the young man's chosen future career, but it was something Vergil and Dante had both long expected. Nero had been –and would always be –free to choose his own career path, but given the fact that he had spent most of his life with two men who worked as demon hunters, it wasn't surprising at all that Nero wanted to follow his father's and uncle's footsteps.

"Umm... are you busy?" Nero seemed to suddenly realise that he was interrupting his father's work, but Vergil's curiosity was further piqued. Now that Nero was out of his rebellious phase, they had shared a rather comfortable father-son-relationship. It wasn't to say that they didn't fight anymore, but at least the fights were less explosive, and Nero always thought things through in the end and they would always make up.

"I was writing a defence paper for your uncle's latest problem." Vergil admitted. "But that can wait. What's wrong?"

"Oh, you're busy. Um, it's okay then... It's nothing..." Nero's face –against the shadow on his face created by the lights outside –betrayed some form of relief that Vergil wondered what could have transpired to place it there.

"Nero," Vergil said with absolute certainty. "Tell me what's wrong."

"It's okay. It's not urgent. You have to write a paper for Uncle Dante's sake, so..."

"You know that I can always spare a little time for you, Nero. Besides, Dante's paper isn't due until tomorrow morning."

"A-Are you sure?" Nero's uncertainty was so clear now that Vergil almost couldn't stop his smile. Whatever it had to be, it was going to be amusing.

"Come in and talk to me about it."

"You won't make fun of me like how Uncle Dante will?"

The question made Vergil even more curious. Nero wanted to talk to him about something that would make Dante amused enough to tease Nero about it? There were a hundred and one things that Dante could make fun of, but Nero had always been able to take the tease –even finding amusement to make the tease back at the originator.

"I am your father, Nero. What can I possibly make fun of you about?"

As if the question assured him very much, Nero self-consciously nodded and stepped quickly in small steps over to his father's bed, taking a seat at the corner of it and facing his father straight. Vergil noted that his son was sitting with hunched shoulders, as if he didn't really dare to be here, didn't really dare to look up.

"What is it, Nero?" He prompted when his son didn't seem to dare to start.

"It's... It's about a... a girl..." His son confessed quietly, and it was quickly followed up by a small blush.

"Right." Vergil nodded, finally understanding the reason behind all of that hesitation and uncertainty. "You're already at that age. Are you interested in someone?"

"Yeah... She's from my class. She has the innocent kind of beauty that lots of guys fall for and she's very kind and gentle."

"She sounds good. When did you first start to know her?" Vergil prompted when his son looked a little put out describing his crush to his father. It wasn't exactly a father's role to be listening to a shy son's confession about a girl he liked, but poor Nero had never had a mother figure ever since Vergil's wife passed on. Vergil had refused to look at another woman, had refused to get another stepmother for Nero, and thus Nero had had to suffer growing up in a testosterone-filled household. While that did make Nero very accustomed to his life as a man, it also meant that Nero was a little less sensitive to the fairer gender.

And now that Nero's male instincts were making him look towards the opposite sex, Vergil supposed that he had to temporarily sub in for the role of a caring mother figure. It was only right –the only thing that he could try his best to do to make up for the lack of a female figure in the house.

"We first started to really talk when I became the Class Manager, and she as the Assistant Class Manager. Because we have to do lots of duties to help the teacher together, so we spent some time together talking."

"What do you like about her?" Vergil wasn't sure when it started to feel like he was interrogating his son instead, but Nero didn't seem to be very bothered by it.

"She's a very grounded person. All the girls in my class always talk about makeup, dieting, modelling and trying to be pretty and attractive, but she is always thinking about what she wants to do for the future. She wants to be a childcare teacher, and it really suits her very well, because she's really gentle, and she grew up in an orphanage with her brother, so she had to take care of the kids younger than her there as well."

Vergil didn't even have to stare to make sure that his son had a mesmerised glint in his eyes; a glint that Vergil wasn't even surprised to find at all. Like his father and mother, Nero had the heart to fall deeply in love with only one person at a time. There had been a short while in which Vergil had been afraid that Dante's womanizing ways had been an influence on Nero's thinking when he visited his son's school for the parent-teacher meeting. Nero had been one of the most popular boys in the school, and Vergil had watched as his son was swarmed with girls in the corridor. Vergil himself had gotten a more than a few stares as well as he walked down the corridors alongside his son.

The way his son had treated every girl with responsibility, respect and care had been something that Vergil had been proud of, but it also worried him a little because Vergil could easily see the love-struck eyes from the girls, as well as the jealous looks from the boys. He had been slightly worried that Dante might have taught Nero the wrong things, to make Nero think that conquering many girls would be an achievement to be proud of. Thankfully, none of that had happened, and blood had been stronger than Dante's rubbish ideals because Nero was now sitting in front of him, the same love-struck glint in his eyes as he described the woman who had caught his eyes –and apparently his heart as well.

"Have you told her about your feelings yet?" Vergil asked, and there came the blush.

"No... That's why I am here... I wanted to know how you and Mom met... and how you guys confirmed your feelings for each other." Nero bowed his head a little in embarrassment, escaping meeting Vergil's eyes as if his curiosity was something to be made fun of. "Asking Uncle Dante was probably not going to be a bad idea, and all my friends had different things to say about it. I don't really know what to do, so... I guess I'm asking for help?"

"Damn right asking Dante is a bad idea. Thank goodness you are smart enough for that." Vergil breathed a sigh of relief of having a disaster averted just like that, leaning back against his chair. "About your mother and I... there isn't really much to say about us actually. We met, we talked, and we fell in love."

"How old were you?"

"I was 27 when I met your mother, and we married when I was 29."

"How did you meet her? Were you already working by then?"

"I was studying to be a lawyer, and working as a demon hunter part-time. Back then, Dante was getting increasingly into more trouble with the law, and I found that we kept losing the money we earned to pay for his lawsuits. So I started to learn about law, and Dante being Dante, just went ahead and enrolled me into university without telling me. But since he'd done it, I just went along. I met your mother there; she was one of my lecturers."

"Really?" Nero's eyes were big with surprise now, no inch of shyness seen. "Mom was a lawyer?"

"A lecturer in law." Vergil corrected. "But yes, she had passed the bar and already had a few years of experience under her belt by 26. She was the university's youngest lecturer, and you can imagine her popularity in the school, because she was the most beautiful as well. Her lectures was always a full house while the other lecturers faced almost-empty theatres."

"Wow." Nero said, blinking in surprise, clearly unfamiliar with the woman who had given birth to him. Vergil couldn't blame him though; Nero had been too young to understand the significance of his mother before she left the world and them behind. "Mom was smart. But how did you two meet? Surely she went through many students as a lecturer? Why were you different?"

"Maybe it was because I was older than the usual student. In a class full of 20 year old students, a 27 year old man isn't very hard to spot. But my age aside, it was probably the fact that we had many things to argue about in lessons. She was covering about the general law exceptions applied to mercenary hunters like demon hunters, and there were many grey areas that I was experienced in –considering how often Dante was involved in those. We kept having debates regarding such topics during lecture, and eventually we brought it out of lecture into her office."

"Whoa, you guys were arguing since Day 1?"

"Intellectual arguments." Vergil corrected with a small smile. "A little spark in every relationship is important, and let's just say your mother and I were like fireworks exploding at each other. But within our arguments something developed. One day I went to her office to submit a homework, and I caught her crying. Apparently she had broken up with her then-boyfriend because she had fallen in love with someone else. Looking at her cry, I was a little affected, so I tried to calm her down. We got caught up in the moment, and one thing led to another. The next thing I knew, I woke up beside her naked on a hotel bed. I left and skipped her lectures for the next few weeks."

"You what? How could you leave Mom alone in the bed and avoid her after that!"

"Nero, I was already a demon hunter by then. Even if I had any feelings for her, I had to run away from her because she and I were impossible. I didn't want to put the woman I love in danger, so I avoided her. Dante couldn't understand why I was suddenly depressed at home, so he went to the university to find things out. Your mom saw him and got mad at him thinking he was me. Dante got the full story from her and came back to confront me. She followed him. When Dante was confronting me, she was attacked by some low-levelled demons that had been trying to sneak on us. Her screams took our attention, so we dashed out and were done with those pretty quickly. The moment we were done, she fell into a crying heap, and I couldn't stand it. I explained the whole situation to her –how I stayed away from her because I didn't want to fall in love with her more than I already had. But your mom... she was a crazy woman, because she didn't care at all. She just wanted to be with me."

"Wow." Nero breathed when Vergil finished the story. "I didn't expect it to be so...complicated."

"Your mom and I had our own reasons for acting the way we did, but in the end we had to sit down and talk about it. If Dante never went to the university, then I guess I would never have met her again, and would never have realized that I loved her too much to let her be safe."

"You said you dated Mom for 2 years? What happened after the two of you decided to get together? Wasn't it awkward because she was technically your lecturer?" Nero's eyes were glittering with a new sort of a light –a form of curiosity that was backed by fascination. Vergil supposed that his son was at the perfect age to listen to this story that no other soul except Dante knew about.

"There were some jealous guys and girls, but your mom and I had eyes for only each other. We dated for 2 years, but really most of those 2 years were missed dates and days spent alone, because I was studying for the bar and taking side hunting jobs to supplement Dante's lack of income, and she was teaching and working for promotion. The times we met were during short breaks and our meals were rushed. It wasn't very enjoyable at all."

"But you still got married after 2 years?"

"Right after I got my bar, the three of us went out to celebrate –Dante, your mother and me. Dante got drunk and went out to look for a woman. Your mother and I were alone again, and once more we were drunk, so one thing led to another. The second time, I didn't leave while she was still in bed. We had brunch together the morning after, and went home. I got hired by the company a few days later, so I was busy settling into my new job. A few weeks later, your mother turned up at our place. She was crying when she said she was pregnant with you."

"Crying?"

"She thought I was going to have her abort you. She knew exactly how busy I was being a new lawyer, and holding down a part-time hunting job. She knew what I felt about putting her in danger just because I am a son of Sparda. She thought that I would force her to abort you. She was scared, but she had to tell me about the pregnancy one way or another."

"But... you didn't, right?"

"Of course I didn't. How else are you here now? The moment the reality sank in that the woman I loved was carrying my baby in her body, I went out immediately without a word. According to Dante, she almost cried herself exhausted thinking that I was leaving her. I came back with the wedding ring and flowers and proposed to her on the spot. There was really no other answer that she could possibly have given me at that point of time."

"Wow, Dad. You were so quick to react." Nero's voice was now tinged with a hint of awed respect that Vergil could not help but smirk a little at. Eighteen years old was still a little too young for his son to be thinking about marriage and having a family, but at least having a woman of interest was a start to that journey that his son would have to make on his own.

"I knew I loved your mother, and I wanted to be with her for as long as I could." Vergil answered. "It's just too bad that she couldn't live long enough to see you grow up, to grow old with me."

"It's okay, Dad." Nero smiled. "I'm sure Mom is waiting for you on the other side."

"She's going to have to wait a little longer, unfortunately. I'm not leaving your side anytime soon, Nero." Vergil warned with a small gentle smile. "So after listening to the story of your parents, have you decided on how you are going to confess to the girl of your interest?"

"Um... Not really. But I've gain a little more confidence after listening to your story. As long as we talk about our feelings to each other, it should be okay, right?"

"Yes. Besides, from what you told me about the girl, she sounds very suitable for you. I'm sure that she will give you very serious thought."

"Thanks, Dad." Nero's smile was now wider as the young man stood up, as if super glad that he had gotten his courage up to approach his father for advice. "You've helped a lot."

"No problem." Vergil looked up at his son now. Nero had grown a lot over the years and was almost as tall as his father and uncle. When the three of them walked out on the streets nowadays, Nero was always mistaken as their younger brother instead of his son. It didn't help as well that neither Vergil nor Dante looked like they were in their forties. As half-demons, physical aging was something that was very delayed for them. As it was, Vergil and Dante both looked like they were still in the early thirties. "Do tell me if there are any updates with that girl."

"Will do." Nero grinned, flashing a thumbs up sign for his father with his demonic arm. "Wish me luck."

"Nero." Vergil called, stalling his son at the doorway, waiting for the young man to turn back again with curious eyes. "What's the name of this girl?"

"Kyrie." Nero said proudly. "Kyrie Sanctus. Actually, you've met her long ago. You saved the both of us from getting kidnapped that time when we were kids."

"Oh." Vergil blinked. "I see. She was a cute one."

"You should see her now." Nero grinned.

"Then, bring her over every once in a while. And pray she never meets Dante again."

Nero laughed. "Of course, Dad."