OOOOOKAY. So, I, the incredibly blonde Jello have just found out I can reply to reviews. I do so apologize for not responding to people on this and my previous fanfictions. I had no idea I could. XD I feel like a complete and utter idiot. Anyway, here is the next chapter of Vergil and Jeanne. :3
This one is more fluff. Because... I like fluff and teenage confusion. xD
EDIT: So of this I got a serious feedback I'd like to address, I'd just like to make sure you are aware that this chapter is NOT Vergil falling in love. Vergil in chapter 3 is a teen with teen hormones. While he feels attraction toward Jeanne due to her power and her beauty, he's more infatuated than in love. Yes, she's a stranger, but have you ever been a teen boy who saw a woman you thought was beautiful and felt flushed just because she spoke to you? That's the situation I was trying to set.
Also please keep in mind that this is before Vergil is really seen in the games. While Vergil in general is a quiet person, yes, he has yet to master the finesse of perfect composure. Whether they are practically strangers or not, Jeanne is practically the only tie besides Dante to his mother, and almost like a fairy tale to this version of Vergil. Even the most quiet person might not be easily composed around someone they thought was some kind of angel.
~Jello
Vergil could not help but feel a bit relieved. He was exhausted from whatever power he was learning to control. The only thing in this blasted valley of any importance was the crimson angel before him. There were many days when he wondered if she had been conjured up from his own need for help back in that day when he needed help the most. But here, standing before him was the obvious contradiction to that thought. Unless...?
"Are you truly here?" He finally inquired of her, holding Yamato by the sheath in case it was some kind of illusion. But the woman took a step toward the tattered boy and narrowed her fair eyes at him.
"I am. But what makes me curious, is that it is you, yet again." She replied with a slight furrowing of her eyebrows as if she were contemplating an issue in her mind. She seemed mildly interested and drawing close to him to look down at his youthful face. Slowly she reached down to place a gloved finger under his strong chin.
"What...?" Vergil queried softly as his balance wavered in a sense of exhaustion. The touch of her hand in such a familiar fashion confused him for a moment, but he didn't know what to do about it. Something about her presence took his breath away. The very smell of her perfume was overwhelming to him and seemed to draw his mind into a strange place he was unfamiliar with.
"You're a very strange child. You give off a power that seems to erupt at the strangest of times. It feels like that of a demon. And yet you reek of human. What are you?" She asked of him while she more firmly held onto his chin, angling his face as if studying him closer.
"I... am the son of Sparda. A great demon." Vergil replied, unsure of why he was even telling her something that important to begin with, but something about her demanded cooperation.
"I see. That explains the sense of power you give. You should be wary using it. People will take notice, and were you the subject of my search, I might have been here for more than a passing whim." Jeanne spoke a warning in that same cautious and smooth tone she used. But upon the end of her indifferent words, Jeanne released him and moved to step away.
Vergil didn't know her, or any of her reasons for being here. But he didn't want her to leave. She was like... something ethereal. Something beautiful that might slip away in an instant, so he did what any man would do and grabbed her hand by the wrist. She was far taller than the prepubescent lad, but she didn't seem to mind the difference in height as she looked back at him. "Oh?" She asked softly and stared at him intensely.
The boy didn't know how to react. Too proud to ask her to stay, and too afraid to let her leave, Vergil did the one thing he could think of in such a situation. He narrowed his eyes and released her wrist, grabbing the hilt of Yamato in a threatening pose.
"Fight me." He ordered in the coldest of tones he could muster. He only knew of one way to make her stay, and that was to render her incapable of leaving. Vergil was no master of the fine art of a silvery tongue, so he'd brazenly cling to the one thing he knew how to do.
Jeanne seemed to pause, a furrowing of her brows indicating a touch of confusion. But then she tilted her head to the side as a small smile began to spread across her pale lips. She took a step back as she drew a pair of pistols with a chuckle.
"Very well then, boy. Say I win? What shall I get for my efforts?" She inquired playfully while placing her pistol barrel against her chin in a cheeky fashion. She enjoyed seeing the lad hesitate in confusion. He didn't know how to respond.
"One of us will die, yes? So if we happen to survive... I suppose a favor?" Vergil spoke softly, his tone wavering for a moment as he tried to consider what consequences this might have. He didn't know what to do, since all he was trying to do was to stop her from leaving. Yes, a favor was all that he could offer right now in his tattered condition.
"I accept your terms." Jeanne replied as she leveled her pistol, firing at him without a moment's hesitation. Vergil was forced to dive to the side to evade the bullet that whizzed past his shoulder, leaving a band of reddish skin where the heat had skimmed his flesh from how close the path of the bullet was.
The momentum of his dive took him clear of the first bullet and brought his body toward a tree. His unharmed shoulder bumped the bark, to which he spun around to duck behind it so that he dodged the next inevitable bullet that splintered out wood chips in every direction. Vergil slashed through the tree to shoot a windblade toward her, while the small tree began to fall after being sliced like butter.
Jeanne was amused by the audacity of the lad, a smirk crossing her face as she flung her body upward and around in a graceful cartwheel. The arc of her long legs and curved back caught his view, distracting him. Why could he not focus? What was it about her that drew his gaze? That called his attention and thought? Before he could sort out his thoughts and as he was drawing his pistol forth, he was met with a heel to the face as she kicked him down.
"What's the matter, boy? Weren't you going to fight me? Or are you too tired?" Jeanne taunted, keeping her knee and leg up as if she were poised to kick rapidly and repeatedly.
Vergil shook off his confusion as he got to his feet, wiping a bit of blood from his now bruised cheek and split lip. "I am perfectly capable. I just..." Vergil didn't have the words to describe the issues he was having, but he resumed his stance swiftly to appear as though he wasn't on the verge of fainting from his exertion earlier.
No, he mustn't hold back. She might think he was looking down on her, which in fact he had the utmost respect for this crimson angel. He narrowed his eyes and decided to try focusing on that well of energy he had used earlier. It was swirling, chaotic sort of aggression within him, like the fury that he had been burying since the moment his father left them alone. When he was too weak to be the protector Sparda wanted. The guardian his mother and brother needed. When Vergil... wasn't enough.
Never again would he be a useless child who must cry for help. No... The very thought of such humiliation drew up that sensation from before. That chaotic energy he would warp into his control, no matter how chaotic it may be, he will wrestle it into his grasp. Blue energy shot from his hands as he clutched the Yamato and tried to attack, this time far faster.
As his eyes grew calm and cold, Jeanne recognized the look of a warrior. She knew she must be on guard, for the boy in front of her was not holding back, and that power was not to be trifled with. But it filled her veins with excitement. Jeanne couldn't help but to feel exhilaration at the sense of danger before her. "That's it~" She hummed as Vergil's body came at her in a blinding speed.
The woman smoothly stepped aside from his slash and kneed him in the stomach, throwing him to the side and nearly extinguishing the blue glow that had been forming around him.
A loud whoosh of Vergil's lungs sounded as he had the wind knocked out of him. His body struck the tree, then rebounded toward the ground in an unceremonious pile of limbs askew. He could only groan as he tried to rise and regain that energy forming in his hands.
Jeanne on her part, was thoroughly amused by his efforts and crouched beside him as he tried to rise, instead preventing him by placing her hand on his white head and forcing him back onto his rear end on the ground.
"That's enough, boy. You are not yet where you can face me, though you are thoroughly amusing." She admitted with a light chuckle as she patted his messy white head.
Heat spread up Vergil's cheeks as a flush he felt humiliated, and yet, something about her tone offered no other option. He relented, but couldn't help his expression of embarrassment. From his neck to the tip of her ears, they were a bright crimson red. "My name is Vergil!" He cried, trying to focus on something else beyond his shame and humiliation.
"Very well then, Vergil." Jeanne replied with a smile, dropping the taunting tone for now as she took note of his finer features. His white hair was a mop that fell into his face, but beneath, he had quite the potential to be a handsome young man. His regal cheekbones and fine profile made him appear somewhat exotic, though still young. She had unconsciously held him by the chin, studying him much like the naga had before. Vergil was beginning to wonder if that was a normal trait among women and finally just pulled away to rub his face and then sweep his hair back and out of his face.
He hadn't the faintest idea what to say. He was a mess, obviously too weak and literally in tatters. This was no way to impress any kind of woman... not that he was trying to impress her.
Jeanne had let her hand fall to the side and took a seat beside him. She sighed and smiled at him as she reached over to mess his white hair up that he had just swept back out of his face. She had a cheeky smirk cross her lips as she watched his back stiffen in shock. He was most definitely not used to being picked on in this way.
The boy only sputtered as he quickly and somewhat sloppily brushed his hair back once again. "Would you stop?!" Vergil exclaimed in annoyance. He may not be full grown yet, but this was just irritating. He was not a child, nor a toy to be fooled with. Even coming from someone he respected like this Jeanne.
"Very well then." Jeanne huffed, frowning a bit as she looked away, perhaps on the verge of a slight pout. "But I suppose the time for amusement has come to an end. I had best be off." She remembered herself and quickly rose to her feet. She does have things to attend to. Leaving the seal for too long is dangerous.
But Vergil spoke up once again. "Will I see you... anymore?" He asked of her softly, tilting his head and fidgeting with the hilt of the Yamato. He seemed to be unbalanced a bit, even shy.
Unable to withhold her laughter, Jeanne chuckled and sighed, shaking her head slowly. "I suppose I have little choice, if you're going to look at me like that." Jeanne replied as she looked down at him. Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she raised a platinum eyebrow.
"Where will I see you?" Vergil insisted, squaring his shoulders to appear bigger before her. Something within him drove him to desire to not seem inferior before her. He wanted to be taller and stronger, but in a different way than his thirst for power.
"Good question. I suppose if you wish to see me that badly, I'll drop by that mountain every few full moons." Jeanne motioned to the mountains that loomed in the distance, specifically the one with the highest peak in the range. One that would be strenuous to get to the top.
"I'll be there." Vergil promised her a little too quickly. He didn't want to seem too eager, but his lack of hesitation made Jeanne chuckle once again.
"You're too cute. Anyhow, tata for now." Jeanne gave the boy a wink and blew a kiss in his direction before she bounded into the air, her hair extending outward to open some kind of portal while she was in midair. A bird-like demon creature emerged from it underneath her and supported her weight, flying off with a gust of wind from it's large black wings. Vergil could only watch in a sense of awe as she fled quickly, as though she had never been there to begin with.
Vergil stood there for moments longer than necessary, his blue eyes staring up at the sky as if he expected her to be returning at any point now. After a long moment, he pulled away from his frozen position and smiled slightly to himself. He didn't have the faintest idea of how to explain the excited sensation pumping through his veins, but for now Vergil was feeling elated, and for once in a very long time... happy. Even if he was tired, there was an extra lift to his step as he began to walk back into the barren forest that suddenly didn't seem so dead.
Something about him was different. He took notice of the tiny, beautiful details. The buds that were emerging from the ground, the small creatures that skittered about and the sounds of life. It was all so entrancing and beautiful, like her. He couldn't think of anything but the graceful curves of her hips, the arc of her cheekbones and the scent of her hair, but most of all, her piercing gray gaze. She was truly, the closest thing to an angel he had ever laid eyes on. He didn't know how to word it, but he knew already he was attracted to her for reasons more than just respect for the power he could feel emanating from her.
He would be at that mountain, every full moon till she arrived. Yes, he'd see her again, and then he wouldn't be so alone. All of these thoughts seemed to bury his thirst and need for power. Because... he had found something that suddenly seemed far more important.