[The School Idol Is A Demon (Part Two)]

"Babe, I could stare at you all night, but I'd rather see you naked and moaning right now." The soft whisper in Luna's ear, paired with the warm breath brushing her ear made Luna shiver as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Concentrate, Luna. 9x1=9. 9x2=18. 9x3=27...

Chanting the multiplication table in her head took Luna's utmost attention as she did breathing exercises to calm down her fluttering heartbeat.

"Want to go have some ice cream later together? I could lick it off your pale back, and you can suck it off from... you know where I'm talking about." The low voice continued to suggest next to her ear.

9x4=36. 9x5=45. 9x6=54.

Luna practically screamed the multiplication tables in her mind now in a bid to ignore the words coming in.

"Or better yet; I'm sure you have no desire to do it with me. You want your boyfriend to lick you, don't you, Luna? Verge is actually great at these kinds of things. He licks like a cat." Dante continued, and Luna bit her lip. It had already been hard enough and now Dante was trying to bring in Vergil?

"You're beginning to turn a little red, Luna." Dante commented with something like glee in his voice. "Are you really imagining what Verge will do when he handcuffs you to the bed?"

The most practical answer was that Vergil would probably take more blackmail pictures of her and keep her under his servitude forever. Still, Luna's feminine instincts could not help but run wild, as she felt a familiar heat running to her face before she could help it.

Knowing that she had failed the test, Luna opened her eyes to find that Dante wasn't even leaning close to her anymore, but staring at her instead from a seat away. The amused grin on his face only made her blush even more as Luna did her best to hide her red face behind her hands.

"I'm sorry..." Luna apologised softly, feeling the furious burning on her face.

"Don't do that!" A hand grabbed hers roughly, pulling them away to reveal Luna's surprised expression. Lady stood beside her, glaring at Dante. "You were playing dirty as hell, Dante. Any normal girl would have blushed and burst a few facial vessels. It's already good enough that Luna could hold out until so long."

An unspeakable warmth spread through Luna's chest as she looked up at the woman who had let her hand free now. When Luna had first been brought into this group of elites, she had been thoroughly terrified at the idea of being in contact with these school idols. The unapproachable aura around them -paired with the way she had been forcefully made into this group -had terrorized her initially.

However, as she began to spend more time, she began to realize that the student council members -while still in their elevated positions -were more human when they were together, and away from the public eye. The ladies in particular treated Luna well and though Luna had seen both's evil side, the fact that they were mostly empathetic of her situation and made effort to make nice with her still settled well with Luna. Nero wasn't bad himself as the youngest member had sincerely apologised for having knocked her out with his kick.

That was the most that she could say for the members of the student council. The distinction between her and them was extremely clear in everything they did. Luna lagged behind in doing the duties a rightful member of the student council did, and she did not carry the same charm as them. She was not as ethereal as the other ladies on the council and frankly felt like a complete throw-face in front of them.

And it did not help that the president and vice-president, the clear leaders of this small group, took sadistic pleasure at putting her in a spot.

The said president stood in the storage room, watching his fake girlfriend do her best to calm herself down. He wasn't the only one watching, though he assumed that his companion was watching both him and the girl in question. Still, it was nothing he had to hide as he kept his straight gaze ahead.

"Why her, Verge?" Trish asked after a long moment of silence. "If it was just someone to take Daddy's attention away, it could have been anyone else. Why do so much for her?"

"The more I do, the more obvious it gets. I didn't choose her -Nero did -but I accepted her because she had so much to change. This is also a matter of ego. If I took a beautiful, sociable girl, then I would have been lauded for finding someone capable enough to fit me. But if I took her and gave her a complete change to emerge into a beautiful sociable girl, she will be a lady that I created to fit me. Why find one when I can make one myself?" The reply was paired with a proud smirk as Trish stared at her eldest brother.

As the only girl amongst her siblings, Trish had always grown up with whatever she wanted. Her elder brothers doted on both her and Nero, and to Trish, Vergil was always the most reliable, smartest and most capable of them all. She trusted everything he said, but right now, she suddenly wasn't very sure of him in his words.

"All things aside, she is doing nicely. Once she is good enough by my standards, we will go public with our relationship. I will just see how far I can take her before she starts to have her own thoughts, then I'll kick her out and it'll be like nothing ever happened. Dad will probably be too worried about me being affected by the breakup to care about the other stuff we've been doing, and I assume we will be close to graduation by then. It should be a relatively easy ride from here on out." Vergil answered his little sister, watching as his fake girlfriend wipe the tears that had been clinging to her eyes, take a deep breath, then requested for Dante to start again.

Her progress has actually been a surprise for Vergil, but still a pleasant surprise nonetheless. Having expected that they would have to spend more time, effort and brain cells to cure Luna of her shyness and ability to blush extremely red in a single second, Vergil was rather pleased to see her doing well. She was pushing forth his schedule and making his life a little less difficult at the moment. As it were, Dante had banned him from being in the same room as the woman after she had said that Vergil was -for some reason -why she could not do well whenever he was around. This completely explained what he was doing hiding in the storage room. Other than the fact that the storage room was cramped and stuffy, it did not help that Vergil needed to be in the student council room to do his duties, not hiding out in the storage room.

"Why not Dante?" Trish asked again, and it even surprised her that it had taken her so long to ask this question. Everyone in the council had been shocked when he announced his plan to make Luna his girlfriend, but the question had not been asked until now.

"Dad knows what Dante is like as well. Him getting a girlfriend isn't as impactful. I can't have you doing something like that, and Lady already has a certain someone in mind, so she would not appreciate if I forced it on her. Nero is too young."

"So you offered yourself up to the sacrifice, huh?" Trish commented. "Lucky for you, Luna is determined."

"I have gone to lengths to ensure that determination." Vergil replied.

"She could always take the easy way out and withdraw from this school." Trish suggested.

"She can't. She knows the power I hold. If she were to transfer, I cannot guarantee that sponsors would continue to invest in her mother's entertainment company. The secret will follow her wherever she goes and she knows it. Besides, she has spent too much time here. She knows too much about us to be let go so easily."

"You're not scared that she will go suicidal if you push her too much?"

"And let the light shine on a boyfriend who forced her to death? You know I'll protect my position better than that, Trish."

"She could always go to Daddy and tell him everything and have him protect her from us. She knows you can't go against Daddy."

"And neither can she go against me." Came the utterly confident reply. "They're all like that; when you dangle something in from of them and give them a reason to think that you forced them there -they don't think of anything else. They take the easy way out because working hard for the sake of someone else is a ridiculous thought. The only thing you can ever trust them to do is to work for self-preservation."

Once more it came. Trish knew very well that her eldest brother had a strange complex whenever it came to people outside of their circle. Lady had been a childhood friend to them all, so she didn't count. Still, it remained a fact that Trish's elder brothers were both prejudiced against everyone else outside family -Vergil much more than Dante.

But because they were her beloved brothers, Trish had never spoken up against it and simply had turned one eye away such character traits. She didn't know if it might have been something that happened to her brothers while she and Nero weren't around or if it was an inherent trait in the twins; she did not bother to find out anyway.

This time was slightly different, because Trish had watched Luna work hard for the past few months, doing her best despite the fact that she was being forced into her position.

"Luna isn't like that." She found herself defending the said woman who was currently struggling against Dante's assault.

"They are all the same. That's the way they want to deal with us; that's the way I deal with them. She is exactly like them. Using us to help her get rid of her problem, and when we become useless to her cause, she finds ways to get out of this contract." The insistent reply was firm and unbending; unforgiving. It was in times like these that Trish found that she understood her brother less and less.

"Verge-" Trish was not actually sure what she had in protest against her brother's words. In all honesty, she wasn't sure why she was trying to protect Luna anyway. Their status quo had been comfortably settled ever since they established their positions as the school idols. Vergil had disrupted it when he had brought Luna in the council, and yet here Trish was trying to protect the woman from her own fake boyfriend?

"Do not question me, Trish. I don't want to have to do the same to you. I don't want you to become one of them." Vergil's strong words rose in volume and only when the deafening silence followed did he realise that he had shouted at his own sister.

The shock written on Trish's face should have told him that much.

"I'm sorry." He apologised, turning to realize that Dante, Luna and Lady had all paused to look at him. "Excuse me, I need a breather."

With the excuse made, Vergil rushed out of the student council room, unforgiving heart still as cold as the day he and Dante found their childhood world in shambles at their feet.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Have you heard the news?" Excited voices rose in the corridor as Vergil slowly strolled through the crowd. "Vergil has a girlfriend! Apparently they have been together for quite some time now."

"No way! Who can possibly suit our Vergil? Is she from this school?" The reply came.

"Yes. I got the shock of my life when I saw the picture of them hugging."

"Are you sure it wasn't Dante?" The slightly worried, slightly sceptical voice replied.

"No, I'm very sure it was Vergil. The girl was wearing our school uniform in the picture, but I don't think I've seen her around. Maybe she is new or something."

"A transfer student? I heard there was someone new in Class 2-B. Could it be her?"

"Huh? It can't be. I didn't hear about a transfer in the teacher's lounge."

"I walked past Class 2-B in the morning. I swear there was a new person. She was a real beauty. She didn't look very foreign, though."

"She probably transferred from another school, then."

The conclusion to the conversation in the corridor settled Vergil very much as he made his slow cursory walk through the crowd. His presence brought about a fresh wave of gossip about his new girlfriend, and Vergil took secret pleasure to hear the confusion surrounding her.

Vergil finally reached the doorway of Class 2-B, where he could see his girlfriend sitting in her usual seat, the area near her table as sparse of people as it usually was. This time, however, there was another reason entirely behind why his girlfriend was being avoided, as he watched the confused eyes of her classmates tag on her, trying to place a name to her familiarity.

It was show-time, and there was no actor better than Vergil Sparda.

"Luna." He called in his most gentle voice -one that he had never used in front of the school public. Watching his girlfriend jerk in surprise at his sudden appearance, Vergil's replying smile to her beautiful smile did not have to be entirely faked. Trish and Lady surely overdone themselves this time. The Luna of the old was almost unrecognisable now.

"I came to get you." Vergil announced as he easily invited himself into the classroom, clearly having timed himself perfectly. "Do you have cleaning duty today?"

"No, it's not me today, Vergil." The reply was sweet and nice. The best thing was that there was even a slight hint of a natural blush happening. For the first time, Vergil was not annoyed to see the blush. "I'm still not used to having you fetch me from class..."

"The truth is out." Vergil declared in a voice that ran a fine borderline between announcing and conversing. "There is no need for us to hide anymore."

"I am both relieved and a little..." Luna drifted off a little, looking at her classmates staring at her shyly. "...awkward."

Vergil decided quickly that if he was the best actor for his role, then Luna herself was a damn good one at acting completely alike to her original shy self. The woman was still shy around everyone else but what now made the difference was that she could act her cutest around Vergil and talk to the other members of the council normally.

"There's no need to feel awkward." Vergil reached out and pulled Luna into his embrace, resting her head on his solid chest. He clearly heard a collective gasp rising around him. "We can finally do things like these without fear or shame."

"B-B-But, your father..."

To hide his uncontrollably growing smile at how everything was going so easy after Dante, Trish and Lady were done with her, Vergil pressed a kiss to the top of her head, earning sweet sighs from the girls in envy. He ignored the fluttering hummingbird heartbeat pressing against his chest.

"No worries about Dad, Luna. I'm not going to let anything come between us. If you believe in me, then I can do anything." He declared strongly, pulling her away to look into her deep eyes.

"Oh Vergil, you can do anything regardless I believe it or not."

"I can do them all as long as you are by my side." Vergil answered with sweetness rolling off the tip of his tongue like honey. These words were learnt from being around Dante too much, though Vergil had put in some effort to inject authenticity into his tone. "You cannot believe how long I have waited to hold you like this in school with no fear for repercussions."

"Oh, Vergil..." The sweet sigh from his fake girlfriend came in reply as they kept themselves in embrace for a little longer. The act was going very well, and Vergil was satisfied at its turnout so far. Clearly no one had a single inch of suspicion as to Luna being his fake girlfriend.

Things were going well.

________________________________________________________________________________

"I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. I didn't mean to keep it a secret, but I was concerned at what the school would do to Luna if I went public." Vergil apologised with a voice full of sincerity as Luna silently marvelled at how skilled this guy was at lying -even against his parents.

Then again, setting up a student council, recruiting his own group of siblings and friend to do all the illegal things they liked just to enjoy the thrill and daring to break into police stations to erase their reports occasionally took a special type of guts. Luna had long realised that only Vergil possessed these set of fearless, hard as steel guts. Even Dante showed his uncertainty at times, but Vergil had always completely been flawless like the school idol he was. Though his perfection rested in something as undesirable as lying and cheating, it remained a fact to Luna that he was the epitome of perfection regardless of all that he did –good or bad.

"Could you -I don't know -have at least told your father about her beforehand?" Sparda asked with a half-understanding smile. The principal himself was a handsome man and Luna could clearly see her fake boyfriend's features in his father's face. Their mother sat beside Principal Sparda, looking almost exactly alike to her daughter. Clearly someone in the family had taken very closely after her mother, which actually left Luna wondering which features on Nero belonged to their mother or father.

"Sparda," The said mother spoke up gently, placing a hand over her husband's on the dinner table with a beautiful welcoming smile directed towards Luna. "You yourself were once young and in love. You understand protectiveness over your own girlfriend, do you not? Forgive our young one because what matters is that he has found someone he is serious for."

Clearly, despite how the charming man was accomplished and in a position of power in society, Principal Sparda was still no match for his wife as he gave his wife a weak look.

"All things aside, I'm glad the reason you spent so much time and effort with Luna is because of love. I was a little worried there that you and Dante were up to no good." Sparda turned the conversation back to the dinner table.

"Dad..." Dante's whine was unexpectedly childish.

"Don't bother to try hiding it. I'm not worried about either of you. What my biggest concern is the two of you teaching your siblings the wrong things."

"Do not worry about us, Dad. Trish and Nero are old enough to know what not to learn from Dante." Luna's boyfriend answered confidently, no inch of surprise registered on his face at being accused by his father for being responsible of leading his siblings astray. A chill struck Luna's spine in a quick single moment, but Luna forced herself to act as if nothing had happened –as if she had not suddenly realised exactly how inhumane her boyfriend was –not only in terms of his abilities, but also his emotions.

"We all know Dante has his moments of startling lack of clarity and wits." Sparda was quick to answer his son, giving his eldest son –also the current president of the student council serving his school –a levelled look of seriousness. "Your mother and I know that you are perfect in every sense, and we are proud of you, Vergil. But perfection is inhumane, and I know that you have a weakness that makes you human. I know because I was like you once. So, I'm telling you to never try hiding your weakness to us because it makes you inhumane, Vergil. It will taint everyone around you, and I don't want your siblings affected as well."

The suddenly turn of conversation was startling as Luna decided that Sparda must know more than he let up on. The words had sounded like a clear warning for Vergil, and the atmosphere had suddenly turned cold and frigid as the two men looked fearlessly into each other's eyes while the others at the dinner table looked at each other worriedly.

"Sparda, you're scaring the girl." The warning tone was soft in Eva's voice, but clear to hear when the woman tapped her husband's hand lightly. Once more, the silent power that the mother of the Sparda siblings held over her husband was displayed for all to see when Sparda broke out of the staring competition with an apologetic look to his wife. "Vergil, you too. We're here to eat with your girlfriend, not have a fight with your Dad. You two can have your little debates some other time, but not at this table."

"Sorry, Mom." The short apology came, but Luna suspected that it wasn't a very sincere one.

The rest of the dinner went down as well as it possibly could as Luna struggled to carry herself as well as everyone else in the family. Apparently being elegant, and attractive in even their everyday-actions was a trait that not only belonged to Trish but also everyone else in the family. The pressure of eating at the table full of perfect people and feeling extremely out of place made Luna's appetite wane, and she found herself leaving an embarrassingly big portion of the meal.

Wincing slightly at the warning look that Vergil gave to her in secret, she apologised profusely to the chef of the day –the beauty mother of the beauty and handsome Sparda children –with an easy lie that she wasn't feeling very well in the stomach that night. The excuse was taken in well with concern from the kind mother, and Luna could not help but feel doubly bad that she was lying about more than just her appetite –but of the singular fact that she was not Vergil's girlfriend.

Following the dinner, Luna did her best to keep up with an eloquent conversation with Sparda after Eva insisted that the guest should not be made to help in the clean-up. Young Nero had been excused to go for club practice after dinner, and Trish, Dante and Vergil were all made to help clean up the dinner table, leaving Luna with the father of the family.

Never having truly met Principal Sparda in person for a casual conversation before, Luna soon understood very well why Vergil and Dante –for all their rebellion –could never afford to rebel against their father in face and in public. Sparda was both the nicest man, but also the scariest man whenever the idea of protecting his school or family came about. Luna clearly saw herself not wanting to become Sparda's enemy, but regretted very painfully that she had already made herself out to be one –the fact that she was lying to him about dating his son. Made to narrate embarrassingly how she and Vergil had 'first met' and shared their 'firsts', Luna found with a little surprise that she could say those lies much more naturally now.

Those training sessions with Dante and Trish were definitely doing her very well as Luna found herself lying without batting a single eyelid now.

They had truly made Luna into something she couldn't recognise.

"Have no hesitations to come forth to me if Vergil ever bullies you, Miss Luna. I will definitely take your side." Sparda seemed to have enjoyed their conversation well, the charming smile even glinting in his aquamarine blue eyes that his sons had inherited.

"Shouldn't you be siding your own son in such cases, Mr Sparda?" Luna laughed lightly, but was completely taken by surprise when a hand covered her mouth and forced the laughter back. Looking up immediately with shock, she found Vergil standing behind her, leaning over the couch and had a hand clamped over her mouth. The look on his face was one that wasn't happy, and for some reason a glare was written on his face –directed at his own surprised father.

"That isn't going to be fair, Dad." Vergil spoke, but for some reason Luna didn't think that her boyfriend was trying to be joking about the situation –given the completely serious look in his eyes. "If you try to put a wedge between us, Dad, just because Luna and I might have some of our differences at times, you won't like the result."

"Are you threatening me, Vergil?" The surprise was bright in Sparda's eyes, but what struck Luna strange was that the father didn't even look insulted. In fact, Sparda looked pleasantly surprised at his son's hostile tone used against him, smiling widely at the both of them. Luna struggled to remove the hand over her mouth, but clearly could not fight Vergil's strength off as always.

"If that wasn't clear enough for you, then let me put it in plain words, Dad." Luna looked back up to see her boyfriend's polite smile made back at his father, but the daggers and evilness behind that smile was almost too plain for anyone to see. Vergil's toothy smile was also one that showed his fangs –his damned-sharp metaphorical ones –at his very own father. "Keep away from my things. You've taken enough."

"Vergil, your father isn't going to take anything away from you." The soft but firm voice of a saviour almost made Luna melt in relief, but she showed none of it just in case she incurred more of Vergil's anger. Clearly she hadn't been acting the best that was expected out of her during this dinner, and Luna already knew that there were punishment to come –particularly about the part of leaving behind big portion of the dinner untouched and uneaten.

"Yeah, besides, it's always us taking his things." Dante followed their mother into the room, followed by their sister who raised a dainty brow at the sight of the current situation –Vergil and their father having a testosterone war while Vergil's hand was clamped over poor Luna's mouth.

"And you still have the guts to admit it, Dante." Sparda was clearly easy to forgive his son as the reply was made in a light-hearted tone, ready to pretend that he hadn't been picking a fight with his son.

"Vergil, do let your poor girlfriend go and prepare the dessert with Trish and Dante." Eva instructed as she stood in a prime position of view. "I'd like to talk to you alone, Luna, while the rest of them prepare dessert. Don't be afraid, I'm not going to eat you."

Luna quietly refused to say that she thought Eva was probably the most harmless and nicest person in the entire family in the interactions that she had seen so far, nodding to show that she understood the instructions given. The children of Sparda were clearly helpless against their mother as all three turned quickly to the kitchen again –Vergil never once casting a backward look.

"Come." Eva gesture surprised Luna as Luna jumped to her feet in a bid to follow the woman.

"You're not talking here?" Sparda asked, equally surprised.

"I said I was going to talk to her alone, Sparda. Unless you are a ghost, I cannot expect to talk to the girl alone here." Eva's answer was quick as she led Luna across the room quickly towards a door nearby.

"But what do you want to talk about that I can't hear?" Sparda asked, as if surprised that he was about to be abandoned alone in the living area. Luna looked back quickly to see the man still seated on the couch, however, looking forlornly at their departing selves.

"Girl things." Eva's answer was unbothered, short and silencing, and Luna hid a smile as she followed the graceful woman out of the room.

In the family of Sparda, there was clearly one big winner in the struggle for power, and it was not Papa Sparda himself.