A/N: I know it's late and I wanted to post this yesterday but my internet was being a bit of a b#$*&! But yeah, have fun unwrapping/reading my belated Christmas present to you all! Merry (belated) Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and have a wonderful New Year! Thanx to everyone who added me to your favorites alerts and reviewing, it really does make me happy. Well, yeah, that's all! Review plz!

"You make him happy."

To say she was just a little more than shocked to this random was an understatement. After all, that last thing she expected while she sat cooped up on a table/seat thingy waiting for the doc to come was talk about her making somebody happy. Especially if it was coming from someone who didn't look happy most of the time. So, she responded with the only word she could.

"What?" She asked.

Vergil, seemingly not the least bit happy about that (no surprise there) closed the book (more like a volume) he had been reading for the last few hours now, placing it in the vacant seat the right of him, and turned his full attention to Lady, much to her chagrin.

"Dante." He said, as if was the most obvious thing in the world, "You make him happy."

The woman in question blinked, still unsure of where this had to be coming from. "Oh." She responded, "Well, that's good."

The blue-clad man continued to stare, obviously waiting for more. But really, what he did he expect her to say? Sighing in disdain of her lack of more words, he crossed his ankle over his right knee, leaning his head on the knuckles of his hand regarding her carefully.

She faintly wondered how he could look oh-so comfortable in an oh-so uncomfortable plastic chair. Tiring of consistent stare, she turned her sight forward to the wall decorated with some flower portrait as a pitiful attempt to add color to the small white washed room. She swallowed, hoping he wouldn't notice.

Where the hell was this doctor?

"My little brother holds an abnormal amount of affection for you, as I'm sure you've noticed." She made a face at the word abnormal but nodded so he would continue, "I want to be sure his feelings are not one-sided."

In translation, she thought to herself, he's asking me if I care about his brother in the same way he cares about me. She held in the urge to laugh out loud because really, he was actually giving her The Big Brother Talk.

So Lady, not knowing what was to come, put on the bravest face she could muster and took a deep breath to prepare herself for the most awkward conversation she would most likely ever have in her entire life.

Once more, where was this woman at?

Slowly, ever so slowly, as if to hold off what was getting ready to take place, she turned to meet his gaze head-on, she knew he would expect nothing less than full eye contact when she gave her answer. "No." she started, making sure to keep her eyes locked with his all the while, "They're not one-sided."

And it was the truth, she realized, as hard as it was to believe. Sure he was an attractive guy, and generous on occasion, but he was still an idiot and so he had his faults (lazy, cocky, rash, untidy, etc, etc...) and therefore sometimes intolerable. And maybe that's what Vergil wanted to make sure, as he sat there scrutinizing her words, that she wouldn't just up and leave when his little brother got too unbearable to live with.

She mentally scoffed to herself at that thought. She had tried it before, some years ago, and as loathe as she was to admit it, a life without Dante was a hard life to endure. Which was why she was where she was at the moment. Not that she was complaining (much, anyway).

After what seemed like hours instead of a measly few seconds, he gave a brief upward twitch of the mouth-as close to a smile she was going to get-and nodded, clearly satisfied with her response. It still came as a surprise when she saw a bit of relief flash across his face before it was back to its trademark unemotional…

Which was weird because she assumed that most people knew the status of their some-what complicated relationship. But still, she was glad that the air in the not-so-cramped-anymore room was less tense than it had been when she and Vergil walked in some while ago.

So it didn't come as much of a surprise when the door clicked open and the woman they'd been waiting on finally graced them with her presence.

Dr. Betham. A nice middle aged doctor who Lady was fortunate enough to get as her own. "Hello, Ms. Ann." She started cheerfully, "How are you to-oh!" she paused when she realized it wasn't just them two in the room."I'm sorry I didn't see you!" she laughed lightheartedly as she sent a greeting Vergil's way. She then turned back to her patient and curiously asked, "Is this the father?"

Lady, for her part, didn't react negatively. For some reason, she could imagine Vergil being a good father if he ever decided to have children, if his protective nature towards his younger sibling was any indication.

She shook her ebony covered head as her answer. Turning to the kind obstetrician and said in a tone she usually didn't use when speaking about the male sitting beside her, "Dr. Betham," she addressed the blue clad man sitting silently to the right of her making sure he heard her every word, "Meet Uncle V."

~Lady~

Whatever change happened that day it was for the better. Vergil and I, for the most part, actually speak to each other now unlike we did some three weeks ago. And to think that all it took was a brief heart-to-heart in an isolated hospital room.

It still didn't stop me from wanting to kick Dante's ass though. After all, I haven't heard a word from him nor Trish since they left. And speaking of Trish, she was in for a world of tongue-lashings from Vergil for taking his precious sword. But I could understand where he was coming from. If anyone were to take Kalina Ann…

Yeah. I would so kick ass.

But that's not the problem here. The problem is that I can't seem to get to sleep tonight-just like the previous nights starting on the night Dante took his inevitable leave and tonight's no better. If anything it's worse.

It's September and for some reason it's hot when it should not be hot and I'm getting heat flashes even though I'm not under any of Dante's sheets.

Oh, yeah, I started sleeping in his room.

It felt like the right thing to do, since this kid is hyper-aware that her father is nowhere in sight, she's been giving me nothing but hell. I know damn well I shouldn't still have morning sickness, but I do. And sometimes I wake up for no reason at all, but I know it has something to do with her but sometimes it's Vergil messing around downstairs doing something or the other. Not sure what, I'm always too lazy to go check for myself. But still, I can already tell she's going to be a troublemaker.

Just like her dad.

I shake my head and laugh, because seriously, a female Dante is not something anyone wants to see. It would be interesting to see though, in the near future. For now, in the present, I need to get myself to fall asleep and the only thing that has been helping me- believe it or not-is his scent. Unluckily for me that's running out. But maybe I'll get lucky enough if I just try…

I'm awake before I even know I dozed off, and I know I'm only awake because something startled me, not sure what though…

Until the bed dips some more.

I'm not alarmed, per say, I can already guess who it is, and if it was some type of danger I unfortunately would be too groggy and-dare I say it-exhausted to do anything but perhaps shout for help. Still I can't help but try anyway,

"Dante?" I can tell by how everything seems to still that I hit the mark. And then I feel arms come around me and a head bury onto the same pillow-his pillow-that I'm occupying.

And then a voice-his voice-shushes me and tells me to "Go back to sleep." If this was any other time I would damn sure rather put up a fight with him telling me what to do, but this isn't any other time, it's now, and so I nod and comply without argument, pfft, not like I wasn't going to go back to sleep anyway.

When I wake for the second time that day, I realize I feel more refreshed than I had for a while now. I also realize that my front is slightly pushed against someone else's front, which I find strange because I can briefly recall falling asleep back-to-front. I guess I move more than I thought I did in my sleep, either that or he somehow got me to turn around. I doubt it though.

For some reason though, I don't find a problem with this. I instead find a problem with getting out of bed. His arms are still snuggled around me but the bathroom is calling.

I didn't want to wake him up; after all he looked positively adorable when he slept…I never noticed it before actually. And I could feel myself smile at the thought. One really wouldn't associate the adjective adorable to describe a person like Dante.

But no matter how adorable he looked, I still had to go. And like they say: when you gotta go, you gotta go.

I at least tried to be subtle with the movements but it seemed like Dante was on alert and woke as soon as I moved. Which sucked…a lot. Things could only take a turn for the worst right? And when he gave a tired but still too cute goofy smile that was exactly what I thought.

"Morning." He said, voice hoarse from the lack of use, but before I could say a thing or two, the door to the room practically slammed open, startling me and making Dante groan out a curse at the abuse of his bedroom door. Yep, things could only get worse.

Vergil, footsteps so soundless I had to actually see him in order for me to know that he was there, was close at her heels, and I could tell that whatever argument they were spewing was going to drag one of us, Dante or I, into it. That was not something I did not want to be apart of, so I took that as my cue to leave.

Dante had gotten up to attend to the current dispute between the two, leaving me, thankfully, to do my own thing. I made sure to get up carefully, because I was sore in the mornings, and did my daily stretch, which happened to be a mistake since that action happened to seize one of the three occupant's attention.

Anything and everything the blond she-devil had planned on saying came to a halt when she got a glance at me, "Wow Lady," she said obviously amazed at something or the other, "You're huge."

It took me about a moment or two to realize she wasn't talking about the swollenness of my abdomen because yeah, that did grow just a bit too, but she was focusing on something else…somethings higher up…

She was talking about my breasts of course, she was Trish and so she would address something to the extent. And with that awareness I couldn't help but check them out myself, it's not like I noticed anyway.

They did seem a bit larger if I did say so myself, but they were also a bit tender, so that was the downfall for that…

Noticing it was indeed too quiet I took a look up-only to find all three of the perverts oogling me! "You perverts!" I started, snapping them out of whatever trance they had been in previously, "This ain't a free show!" With that said, I turned and started for the bathroom…

…And I could hear his non too light footsteps following after mine and I couldn't help but groan in disdain. "Would you quit following me?"

"Not until you give me my good morning kiss."

"NO!"

Later

"Alright, spill it," I demanded when I was finally able to get me and my blond haired companion some privacy, "What the hell happened on that job, Trish?"

Trish, who had been previously picking nonexistent filth from her freakishly long nails when I pulled her in here-here meaning my room of course-glanced up at me with a too innocent expression before asking, "Why, whatever do you mean?"

Pfft, as if I would fall for that.

With a roll of my eyes, I continued, "You know as well as I do that Dante isn't acting like himself. What the hell happened?"

She looked like she wouldn't respond for a while, looked as if she would be doing some forbidden thing by telling me just what went on while they were gone, but finally she decided she didn't give a damn.

Wasn't surprising in the least. With a sigh, she began her tale,

"There was a girl…"

I looked on, obviously waiting for more.

"…and there was this boy."

"Trish!"

"Okay, okay." She straightened out to face me, actually getting serious this time. About time "Nero. It's the boy's name. Kind of reminds me of Dante. White hair, the blue eyes… He had this crazy devil arm-"

"Devil arm?" I asked, cutting off her reminisce.

"Yeah. It was strange." She waved it off, deciding to leave that story for another time, "But this kid…he went all out for this one girl, Kyrie, I think her name is. Fought The Order, fought her brother-not that I was there, I just heard about it-but…I don't know, it was just insane how much he went through for this one girl."

I remained silent at that, knowing she had more she wanted to say on the subject. "And then she got taken away from him and he just went ballistic-I'm talking bat right out of hell wild trying to get her back. Somehow he got a hand on Yamato," She flinched, recalling the event,

"Dante ran into him a few times. Tried to get the sword back, but he was too damn stubborn, brat put up a good fight too." She glanced up at me for that part, "Dante's words, not mine." I nodded in understanding, it sounded like something he would say.

"And, yeah, I don't know," her hands slapped onto her black leather-clad thighs in exasperation, "I guess Dante just imagined himself in the same position-if you were ever to be taken away from him, I mean." She scoffed and added to herself, "If anyone would be dumb enough to try and do that."

Finally, after a moment of silence, I spoke. "I'd like to meet this kid."

"Lady…" She gave off a soft un-Trishlike smile my words.

But I wasn't done yet. "So I can kick his ass."

Trish for her part wasn't expecting that when she exclaimed a shocked, "Lady!"

"What?" Because really, what did she expect? "Isn't it his fault Dante's all lovey-dovey, mushy-mushy, wanting to cuddle every freaking second now?"

She looked deadpanned as she responded. "Isn't that what you want?"

"W-what?" I cursed myself when I felt my cheeks starting to burn at the brashness of her question even though it wasn't true…Well…not for every second, anyway…"The hell gave you that idea?"

She scoffed at my reaction like I should've known better than to question her, "It's common knowledge that expectant women-like yourself-enjoy more physical contact from their mates on a regular basis than it is for non-pregnant women."

"Where are you getting all this stuff?" And wait, m-mate? The fu-

"Magazines, internet, television, etc, etc…" She stated, responding to my previous question, "But really, you have to admit that it does make a hell of a lot of sense." And as much as wanted to, I couldn't disagree with her because, well, it sorta did.

I decided that the conversation had to stop right then. If me agreeing with Trish-Trish of all people wasn't a sign that something was wrong, then this sudden dizzy spell/headache/nausea feeling (and was it cold in here?) sure was.

So I stepped out of our former comfort zone in an effort to get something cold to drink when lo-and-fucking-behold, I run into (literally) the subject of our tête-à-tête. And I could tell from the way his hands were gripping my arms-there to steady me when we crashed-non too tightly, that he had no plan on letting me go.

And to think that all I wanted was a drink. A great day this was turning out to be, (note the freaking sarcasm).

I found it weird that he was staring at me so intently, his icy baby-blues piercing through mine, as they did earlier, "Lady," and I was waiting for him to spurt some ridiculous shit like he'd been doing all day, just bothering me for the hell of it because he knew he could, so it came as a surprise when he truly appeared to look so serious. "You know I love you, right?"

The fuck…I remember my eyes widening to a size I wasn't even aware that they could extend. I then remember my face scrunching up in what could only be assumed as confusion because where the hell did that come from? And I can faintly recall myself sputtering a barely coherent "Wha..." if that counted for anything, but the rest…is black…

...

When she woke, she woke with a headache and a groan. And because her arm was feeling a little anesthetized and her left side very uncomfortable she decided it was time to turn herself over to a new position in what she could only assume a bed-most likely not her bed-so she could continue in her slumber.

What she wasn't expecting was for someone to be on the other side.

"Morning."

She resisted the strong urge to scream but that didn't mean she didn't freeze up, staring in the doe-caught-in-headlights fashion people were so fond of using theses days.

"Since when do you faint?" when it was obvious he wasn't going to get an answer out of her, he continued, "You know, Trish was about to send me to hell and back and to hell again because she thought that I did something to you. And then Verge," he shook his head to rid himself of a bad memory, "He was going to slaughter me."

When she was sure her voice was back to its normal octave and her heart was no longer located in the base of her throat, she tsked in annoyance and glared heatedly at him before explaining, "It was just the heat-"

"The heat of my love?"

"Shut up!" She then did an un-Ladylike thing and hid her face in the comfort of his pillow, making the white haired hunter chuckle whole heartedly in the process, which only seemed to cause her to bury herself more.

Lady felt him begin to toy with the digits of her left hand after a while,

"Hey." The softness of his voice (she was still getting used to that) was what caught the woman's attention and she let out a grunt to let him know she was listening.

When he was positive she was indeed listening to him, he asked in a tone she was new to hearing, "Why'd you take it off?"

And she immediately knew what he was talking about for he had stopped on a specific finger located on her left hand. In her curiosity, she revealed a russet eye out of its concealment only to find that he wasn't looking at her but rather the focus of the question and she couldn't help but become aware of her heart was beating a little faster. She responded with the only answer she had, "It was turning my finger green." the truth.

The man let out a light chuckle, but continued his quiet examination on said finger and she resisted the urge to curl her hand up and hide it away from him. After what seemed like forever but wasn't really, he decided that he had enough exploration for that moment but still continued to hold her digit carefully.

"So, if it was real, you would keep it on?"

What? The shock of his question had knocked the breath from her and she found it so hard to get it back. And the way that he was staring at her…

"Are you trying to ask me something?" The way his eyes swept up to meet her own at the inquiry had her trying for breath again. He looked serious-determined really-determined for what she did not know nor did she want to know because it was too much to take in and she was pregnant and hormonal and she was holding her breath because he wasn't answering her and if he didn't stop staring at her like that right now she was sure to die and take their baby with her so he should stop so she could breathe again-live again-

And just when she actually thought that she was going to die-like literally-he blinked, taking his determination and seriousness with it and replacing it with a wolfish grin one could only associate with Dante.

With a casualness that could only come with being the youngest of the Sparda twins, he answered with a, "Nope." And then he laughed when she gave an exasperated roll of her russet-teal eyes. "Come on, babe," he started in his usual oh-so laid-back manner, The bastard, "Let's get you something to eat."

And with that he proceeded to drag her out of their bed and down to the kitchen where she would undoubtedly consume an unhealthy amount of pizza just because that was what she was craving and she because she could get away with it.

But first, she had something to say to him.

With a slight tug of her wrist, she pulled him to a stop, gaining his attention. But before he could say (complain) about the action, she pressed up on the tips of her feet using her new post (his neck) for balance and pushed their lips together.

It was a soft press of the lips that lasted for longer than she planned, but it felt like much more with how tender he responded to the contact. With much reluctance that she refused to show on her part, Lady pulled away, looking him in the eyes when he finally opened them she said almost shyly, "You know I love you, right?"

Dante gazed at her softly for a moment as if he wanted to say something but decided against it, and before she knew it, his eyes turned their playful blue. "Is this the part where I faint?" he asked.

With a fierce snarl, Lady clipped him on the back of his head in her annoyance making sure he gave a shout of pain before stuttering out an embarrassed "Shut up!"