Vergil's OneShots (DMC Fanfiction)

Just A Normal Dad

A/N: As promised, the second chapter of the week. Vergil as a father is often a recurring pattern in this book, but there are many different types of fathers out there in the world.

[Just A Normal Dad]

Personality: Post-DMC4SE/Pre-DMC5 Vergil

Excited shouts and squeals of happy children filled the background, though the sounds bounced off Vergil as he concentrated on the open book propped between his hands, wishing he had a better atmosphere than the noisy, sunny outdoors to enjoy his hobby. Still, he had been dragged out here by his wife. It had been an easy cost-benefit mental-weighing process: it was either coming out with her and their son for a picnic, or her nagging the remaining life out of him. Because he still valued his life, he had wisely chosen the former of the two choices.

Vergil flipped a page in his book, but looked up instinctively when a shadow was suddenly cast on the pages. A short two year old with brightly glittering blue eyes grinned down at him, an expectant look in his eyes as short, stubby fingers pointed to a ball that rested on top of the toy pile that his wife had brought along for the young one's entertainment.

Vergil grabbed the ball beside him on instincts, then gave a disinterested lob, watching as it flew through the air in a beautiful arc and land a good distance away.

"Fetch." He said as he threw, but he doubted the two year old understood what his word meant. Still, the idea remained as the child squealed excitedly, then began half-running, half-toddling on unsure feet towards where the ball had fallen, making squeaky noises with each step with his squeaky shoes.

"Vergil, Nero is not a dog." Alyssa scolded beside him.

"He loves playing fetch. He might as well be one." He answered his wife nonchalantly, turning back to his book but receiving a small disciplinary smack on his arm for his reply.

"When the boy grows up, I'm going to tell him that his father wished he was a dog when he was younger." Alyssa threatened lightly, but it was not much of a threat for her husband.

"By all means, please go ahead. If you're too shy to say it, I'll tell him myself. I wanted a dog, but you wanted a son. Well, you won. Sucks to be me." Vergil replied, not even taking a single look out of his book. Beside him, his wife sighed in defeat as she continued unpacking the lunch that she had carefully prepared for the two males in her life.

Vergil had always been a man whose words were harsher and colder than his words. He often liked to pretend that he disliked the presence of their son, that he found Nero a hassle and a general troublesome thing to have around the house. But it did not change the fact that Alyssa knew that Vergil actually cared about the boy. Hiding behind a disguise of nonchalance and indifference, Vergil often looked out for Nero's well-being, and usually caved to Nero's childish demands. In the boy's first year, whenever Alyssa requested that Vergil help change Nero's diapers, wake up to tend to the boy's cries, feed the boy... the man might have complained while doing so, but the fact remained that his hands and fingers were always gentler than his words.

In fact, Alyssa knew that Vergil had actually shed tears the first time he laid eyes upon his son. The nurses in the hospital had told her of that secret, though Vergil had sworn furiously that he had done nothing of that embarrassing sort.

Still, Vergil's personality had always been a difficult one, and fatherhood had not changed much of it –at least not yet. Alyssa knew very well who she had married, and thus allowed him to lounge by himself on the picnic mat, flipping through his book with an interest that not many could imitate. It appeared as if his world had fallen away around him as Alyssa played with their son, making sure that Nero created memories that he would very distantly recall.