Comic-Con was AMAZING if I hadn't truly conveyed that yet to anyone. :D I felt like a kid in a candy store and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since! There is just something about being around all those like minded people that made me feel great. Plus, DevilWriterN's t-shirts of chibi DMC/RE character's went over well. There's nothing like complete strangers stopping you to inquire about your shirt. :D Success!

But now I'm back to reality which has turned into the prospect of 11 hour work days for a while. I really didn't need any other things to take away from my writing... grrr. Honestly if the economy wasn't so bad I would've quit by now.

So again I must ask for patience on your part while I try to work all of this into my week without burning myself at both ends.

Also, I need to figure out what is up with all this napping...lmao! Anyone notice that things between Vergil and Lady always revolve around a bed?! This is seriously not intentional, but then again I don't think you guys mind it one bit. Since being close to a bed means... intimate things. Let's face it, I want them to get their wicked on all sweaty and angry-like. Maybe if I do it will vent some of my own angry frustrations with work...lol Or is that just an excuse to write it?

OK, I'm rambling. Enjoy!

P.S. - To anyone who have sent me a message (either PM or review) I will get back to you asap! Sorry it's taking me so long to respond. :(


Killing Moon

Chapter 7

Lady did not know what time it was when she managed to doze off, but when her eyes opened she was sure that she'd only been asleep for about an hour.

Vergil of course was still gone and so she turned on her side, pulling the covers closer to stare at his empty spot. Maybe she could convince herself that last night was only another nightmare. It fit the protocol obviously, yet the pain in her shoulder was too real to deny.

So she sat up, grabbed clothing from her bag near the end of the bed and put them on under the covers. She moved to stand, only to find she couldn't really do it without help, falling back down onto the futon with a surprised look. Lady tried again and again she fell.

Feeling useless she crawled towards the front door and used the doorknob for help, balancing herself by holding onto it and then the frame as she opened the door.

It was a cloudy overcast that threatened a dark, dreary day with possible rain to follow. Yet there was a gentle mist here and there in front of the small cabin. Even more remarkable was a doe and her fawn grazing in the grass just a ways beyond the overgrown front lawn.

The picture before her was one of serenity and she dared not breathe for fear of scaring the deer away. So she stood in the doorway and watched them feeling all those bad emotions and fears easing. Considering how long it had been since she'd encountered something other than Vergil, especially something non-threatening, it filled her with a sense of simplicity. For once feeling things could be clear and uncomplicated again.

The doe gently licked the fawns head, its ears twitching at the sudden contact from its mother. The mist continued to swirl around them as they continued to graze the dew soaked grass.

Then mother and child went still, the elders ears twitching as if picking up on something. Lady held her breath hoping something she had done hadn't frightened them but it did not stop either from startling quickly and fleeing the scene. Lady looked to where they ran sadly, letting that long sigh of a breath go.

Annoyed, Lady took another step forward to see what had startled them, because now she could see something moving in the mist yet she could not make out what it was. After a moment the humanoid figure came into view before Vergil came walking up the road, the morning mist scattering round him as if he weren't walking through, but as if it were fleeing him.

He was wet and even more gaunt looking than usual, with his hands in his pockets and hair disheveled. His head was not raised proudly, but was looking resolutely at the ground and if Lady did not know any better she could've sworn for a moment it was Dante walking towards her by the sudden change in his body language.

Once he had gotten near his eyes suddenly looked up, as if sensing her there. He paused, looking away before regaining that tall, proud stance and walking resolutely towards the cabin. Without offering or asking he lifted her into his arms and wordlessly took her back inside. Even stranger, Lady let him.

"Where did you go?" Lady asked as he carried her towards the futon. Back in this same position Lady let her arm hang around the back of his neck. Somehow she wasn't as uncomfortable about being touched by him, or perhaps had just grown use to it now. No... it was the fact that she had thought long and hard about it all night. Vergil had a prime opportunity to take advantage of her last night, and if he had she wouldn't have been able to stop him with how her body had been reacting. She'd have been pissed after, yes, but at that moment she cared nothing for self preservation or pride. Lady had wanted him even if she did hate it.

Yet he didn't take that opportunity. He'd left her as soon as the deed was done and it made her believe that perhaps Vergil was really telling the truth. What he was doing wasn't perverse, but necessary. It was time for her to stop believing otherwise, because once she did the sooner she could get away from him and that feeling of wanting him. That was the scariest part. Her fear of him wanting her was false, but now she felt the need for him.

"Walking," he replied in a tone she wasn't used to hearing from him. It was normal, without mock or coldness. He was simply answering her question.

"You're soaked," she continued as her fingers curled into his shirt once he bent forward, kneeling to place her back in the bed.

"It rained for a while and I did not have my coat."

"Oh...," she trailed off as he used his hands to remove her arm from his neck, setting them on her chest as he turned and pulled the covers back over her.

"Have you slept?" He asked as he took her wrist to check her pulse. Lady shook her head but was paying more attention to the cold feeling of his fingertips, and unable to tear her eyes from the gleaming skin of his neck and chest. He really could be beautiful when he wasn't being an asshole. Her eyes lowered to the white shirt stuck to him, showing the lines of his chest and abs almost teasingly. Lady blushed and turned her head away from him. Well this isn't helping.

"You should have slept. You won't recover without proper sleep," he said seriously.

"I couldn't sleep."

"You looked tired enough when I left you."

"I'm a temperamental sleeper. Any change in sleeping habits makes it harder to sleep."

If he did not get the meaning there then she wasn't going to explain it to him. The one thing that was different last night was the fact he wasn't sleeping beside her. She'd suffered through it most of her life, losing sleep whenever she slept in a new place or if any of her sleeping habits changed unexpectedly.

Somehow her body could just sense she wasn't in her own bed or something was missing and for one night made it impossible to sleep. So she rarely stayed over in any new places, preferring her own bed. But now that she was accustomed to sleeping here and with him next to her the sudden change of him missing had brought on the insomnia despite how tired she'd been. Lady always wondered if the issue arose from lack of security in her life, so she tried to find it in smaller ways which meant she didn't handle sudden changes well. She hated being out of control.

Vergil's brows were furrowed and his mouth frowning, possibly reading between the lines.

"So you are going to blame me for your lack of sleep as well?" He asked.

For some reason the look in his face along with what had happened the night before made Lady grin widely at his question. Yes, she could blame him for this too, why not? She let a soft laugh out that eased her more, finding that with him sitting there beside her that she was feeling sleepy. Lady yawned and curled under the covers.

"Did I say you could go to sleep now?" He asked.

"You going to stop me?" She inquired, opening a single eye to look at him. He said nothing, and so she closed her eyes.

Lady heard him move away, standing up and the sound of his boots on the floor. She opened an eye slightly to watch him and found that he walked over to the chest where all his clothing was kept. Vergil pulled his shirt off causing her heart to catch in her throat. It wasn't the sight of his bare back that startled her, or at least the idea of how attractive it was. She was repulsed to see large and freshly healing lashes across his back.

"What happened?" Lady suddenly demanded as she sat bolt upright.

Vergil turned to look at her.

"What happened?" Lady asked again when he didn't reply, instead throwing on a different shirt to hide them.

"You should be resting." Vergil said evenly. "Close your eyes so I may get dressed."

"But...," she began to protest before she was forced to look away when he purposely began undoing his pants. She heard them drop to the floor, his belt buckle startling her as the metal buckle scuffed against wood with a dull clunk. More sound of movement, then clothing before footsteps were padding over towards her again.

"You must get some sleep or else you will be useless to me. We have wasted so much time already." Vergil said now close to her. She opened her eyes to find him coming to lay beside her.

"What did you do?" Lady pressed once he was laying face to face with her. She felt his arm snake around her waist and as usual pull her to him. His body was cold in comparison to hers and she almost felt as if he was pressing to her for warmth.

"Shut up and go to sleep. We have a lot more to do and I will not have you falling asleep during." Vergil said in a tone of finality, somehow going from the normal tone he'd discovered this morning back to his authoritative one. He was annoyed, that much was apparent by his use of 'shut up', something she couldn't remember him ever saying to her.

She watched him a while before doing something she had never done before. Lady curled her arm around his waist to pull them together before resting her head just below his jaw. She told herself she did it for comfort. If he were going to offer himself as a pillow then she was going to use him like one. He did not move or protest and Lady felt the wave of sleepiness come over her at finally having things back to normal.

Even if referring to sleeping with Vergil as normal was the very definition of a paradox.

--

Once again, having lost all sense of time, Lady woke to candle light and assumed the obvious. It was night time.

"I should've been a detective...," she mumbled as she turned on her stomach before sitting upright.

"Pardon?"

She turned to see Vergil sitting on a chair near a desk covered with books.

"Never mind. What time is it?" Lady asked as she yawned lazily.

"Several hours past when you should've been awake," he said peevishly as he turned back to his books.

"Again, we all know who put me here so don't sound so aggravated." Lady snapped back.

He did not respond and went back to pouring over his stupid books all while Lady sat bored out of her mind. Which reminded her.

"Hey. You mentioned training I could do without leaving my bed. What is it?"

"You'll find out tomorrow," he replied and said no more.

"Why tomorrow? Aren't you in a hurry or something?"

Now she was just bored and unfortunately he was the only person she could talk to. So she wasn't going to let him get away with quick responses.

"I am, but this training is best left during day light hours. Trust me on this. Besides, regardless of the sleep you've gotten it is severely unhealthy for human's to remain awake during the night hours when they are naturally pre-disposed to be sleeping. You cannot get proper sleep in daylight as you can in the night time."

"You are a walking encyclopedia, aren't you? How the hell do you know so much about humans?" Lady asked as she reached over and grabbed the only thing available for food. An apple.

"It's called a book," he replied mockingly.

"Don't talk down on me like I'm stupid. I can read you know, but you can't learn everything out of a book." Lady snapped before taking a large bite of her apple.

"Everything of any significance."

"Ahhh, so your instinct in battle. Did you learn that from a book?" Lady asked haughtily. Vergil remained silent at this. "Exactly. Which... judging by your calculations means that your instinct is insignificant, right? Your experience and everything you learned the hard way is all nothing at all."

"Point taken." Vergil interrupted in a tone that warned she was testing his patience. Yet she didn't feel like backing down since she was getting tired of him treating her like a thing.

"You can dish it out, but you can't take it can you?" Lady asked. Her current temperament stemmed from the humiliation of the night before and of how typical it was that on cue he turned cold on her again.

Something about the mood when he'd left her the night before and that of the morning was so different. It was like he was two different people entirely. The one who gave her the cold shoulder one moment and the one who warmed her in bed at night.

"I just have no patience for conversations that will ultimately lead nowhere. This one is only likely to anger us both and what would that solve?"

"If it pissed you off it would make me happy," she replied.

Vergil turned in his chair and just stared at her.

"My anger amuses you, does it?" He asked once again gaining that dark tone that warned her not to press him.

"What can I say. I'm bored out of my mind and all you can offer me is 'go to sleep and we'll chat tomorrow'. I'm awake and willing. So if you have something for me to do then by all means, bring it on. Its either that or you take responsibility and keep me entertained." Lady said simply and leaving it at that to let him consider his options.

"You never know when to close your mouth do you? I think I have been rather generous in attempting to keep you out of dangerous situations and yet you willingly provoke me? Were you a witch in another life sent to torment devil-kind?" Vergil asked as he stood and pulled from the drawer a... blind fold.

"I don't believe in past lives and what the hell do you intend to do with that?"

"This?" Vergil asked as he lifted it up. "Why dear, this is what you asked for."

Vergil walked towards her and came kneeling down on the futon, placing the blindfold out as if he meant to put it on her.

"Hold up there--"

"You want to learn to control this, yes?" Vergil asked.

"Well, yeah..."

"Then be quiet and put this on."

He dropped it in Lady's hand and she just stared at it, then up at him as he waited patiently for her to follow his orders. The last time she'd closed her eyes in Vergil's presence he had kissed-- OK, not kissed, but had pressed his mouth to hers to take the essence from her. Was that what this was now?

"The root of the problem is your emotions. Have you ever noticed that Dante, in moments of rage or danger transforms? The essence you take in is using your limitless human emotions as a gateway. The stronger the emotion the more you feed off of it. It's one of the other reasons I needed you. Your love for him, thirst for revenge, compassion, anger... It makes you easily susceptible to his essence especially in the emotions he seems to bring out of you. Learn to control your emotions and you learn to control how much you take in." Vergil explained as he took the blindfold back into his hands and moved to put it on her. She flinched back from it.

"And the blind fold?"

"Disable the other senses and you'll find what remains is amplified. It will help you to better concentrate your emotions away from a distraction."

"What distraction?"

"This," he replied as he lifted his hand and suddenly a small ball of light formed in his hand.

"A... ball?" Lady asked doubtfully. How the hell was a little ball going to distrac-- But there was something off about the small orb of light. Something... oddly familiar.

"This is raw, demonic energy pulled directly from the source, in this case. Me." Vergil said as he moved it past her face. Lady felt her skin break out into goose bumps. "Being that Dante and I are twins we share the same energy which might explain why you, how did you put it... Feel anxious around me?"

Lady only glowered at him for bringing that up again but even more because she was feeling the effects of the little essence orb.

"The idea is to strengthen your resolve. Find a way to curb your emotions or cut them out completely. This is why I suggested this be done during the day light hours since if you should fail due to lack of proper sleep you will take essence into your body which I will then have to take back. Since it is my own, mere touch alone will not suffice in taking it back as can be done when you've taken it from Dante."

"What?" Lady asked suddenly thinking maybe she was better off bored.

"But of course, judging by your courage earlier and all your big talk I assume you are ready for anything, aren't you my dear?" Vergil asked teasingly. He expected her to back down now, she could see it in his smug face. He wanted her to show weakness so he could mock her some more.

"Of course. I said lay it on me, so let's do this," she responded confidently and unwilling to show any fear. Keep her emotions in check? Not a problem. It would be different because she did not care for Vergil like she did Dante. Even if her treacherous body and mind had been swaying in feeling a twinge of something, it still wasn't anything close to real. There was the big difference that surely would save her. Of that she was one hundred percent positive of!

--

An hour later she was determined to strangle him just as soon as she pushed him down onto the futon and had her way with him.

"You're barely struggling at all," his voice called somewhere beyond the blind fold. She was breathing hard, sweating like crazy and shredding the sheets beneath her finger nails in an attempt to not launch herself at him.

"I am too!" Lady snapped. "You just need to shut the hell up so I can concentrate."

"I doubt Dante would shut up long enough for you to gather your wits. Be glad I'm not doing half a dozen other more repulsive things he would've tried by now."

"Shut it!"

Lady took a deep breath, then released, before taking another and holding it. How the hell was she supposed to know how to keep her emotions in check? Seriously! Emotions weren't solid things you could grab onto like Vergil's-- No... They weren't real and she had no clue how to get them under wraps.

Find your happy place... Lady thought, thinking that maybe if she found a safe haven in her mind-- Bad idea since her happy place included a bed and an alarmingly nude Dante and Vergil. What the hell!

"You know, now I find I'm the one who is getting quite bored by all this." Vergil's voice droned in obvious boredom. "I would've thought you clever enough to have this under control. Then again, you are merely human."

"I'm going to fuck you up if you don't zip it tight ass," she growled.

"You really shouldn't use such language. It's an unattractive quality."

Lady felt her blood boil. Anger mixing with her frustration and the intense electricity the orb was giving off. Her anger only proved to make it worse.

"At this rate you will suck me dry," he sighed and like that the feeling left her. "Perhaps from now on you will take my advice."

Lady sat confused before she felt him pull the blindfold down and she saw the orb was gone.

"What the hell?" Lady asked. "I didn't even get a good shot yet!"

"And if I give you the time you need I will be a heap of nothing on the floor. Remember you are taking my demonic power. I don't have a steady flow to constantly feed you." Vergil replied with a deep breath and Lady noted that he did seem somehow lessened. "Give me respite and we will try again during day light hours when you've had a proper night sleep."

"But, it's not working. How the hell am I supposed to get a hold of emotions? You gotta give me something to go on here." Lady said.

"I can't tell you how to feel. That is something only you can do all on your own. Not caring is easy for me, but you have been a slave to it your entire life."

"Bullshit. Even you at one point, cold bastard that you are, felt something. Hell, you feel hatred, don't you?"

"My ambitions have nothing to do with feelings so much as wants. I get what I want regardless of who I have to step on along the way. Whether it be blood or other. I simply seek out what I need to survive and I assure you it is possible to survive without emotions."

"Survive, sure, but live? You're better off dead..." Lady said pointedly. "What exactly will you do once you get all you ever wanted? Maybe you'll be content for a little while, but in the end you won't be happy. You're like a junkie. You kill your soul by suppressing your emotions to reach something higher but sooner or later you're going to reach the limit. Then what?"

Vergil raised an eyebrow at her, his mouth frowning at her words.

"My abilities will be limitless. Being a human you just don't know how far I can go."

"The tone in your voice is anger Vergil. You don't like me picking apart your master plan. Even if you've abandoned all the good emotions you can never be fully rid of them all. Your frustration with me these past weeks and even the odd times when you're not a cold bastard. You're not immune any more than I am. So tell me oh great one. How can you expect me to shut down when even you haven't figured that one out just yet?"

With the look on his face one would've thought she'd slapped him. But to Lady it was a simple question. She was so tired of him acting all high and mighty when he clearly had issues of his own. Maybe he didn't think of them as issues, or flaws but through her eyes he was every bit as susceptible to them as she, a mere human, could be.

"So... you work on that and get back to me." Lady pressed on when he remained silent before scooting down to lie under the covers.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Vergil asked just behind her. Lady turned to look at him but felt his hand take hold of her chin and suddenly he was nose to nose with her. "Why must you make me so... angry."

"What are you doing?" Lady asked brushing his comment off.

"I warned you what would happen and now I need what you stole back."

Lady hesitated, with her eyes flickering away before she swallowed hard. Maybe he saw her fear because he whispered.

"If it repulses you so much imagine I am Dante..."

That made her face burn even worse and she wondered how she could mistake the two. Then it occurred to her as if she had somehow forgotten they were twins. Yet staring up at him it just didn't seem to work with his hard-set eyes that weren't warm or kind but cold and cruel.

So she closed her eyes to trick her senses into believing this was her friend. Someone who cared about her well being and would do anything to see her smile. Once her eyes were closed she could almost picture it.

Her heart was drumming hard in her chest as he only hovered above her before lowering his mouth to hers. She had managed to calm down during their discussion but now that overwhelming feeling of desire and heightened senses was back ten fold. She tried to clear her mind, once again grasping desperately to the sheets in an effort to make sure she would not reach out to him.

But as he layed her down and she felt the slight weight and warmth of him it made every nerve in her body wake and crave him. Her body telling her that she needed to stop teasing it and give it what it wanted or else it would take it without her permission. Which it was as she found her hand sliding up his hip and going to hold close to his lower back.

He wasn't even really kissing her for God sakes! Their lips were touching, his head turned slightly but no pressure or tongue involved. So why did it make her burn all over just to have him hovering over her?

The worst part was the images going through her mind of her dreams and of last night. Her body pressed upward into him and she felt him take her wrists, pressing them down to prevent her from running them along his back as she had been. Yet her leg snaked around his hip to pull him down off his knees and finally allow her to feel his full weight. Her entire being tingled...

Control it she urged herself. Lady squeezed her eyes tightly and tried to shut down entirely, bringing forward that feeling of this being nothing more than a business transaction. The more she tried to clear her mind the more thoughts began to race when suddenly a single image engraved itself in her mind. Dante...

The first time she met him, riding the rocket she'd launched at him with such a look of pure enjoyment. Of the time he'd come in covered from head to toe in a black substance that turned both his hair and skin gray for a month. Shutting out any impure thought that was trying to bombard her mind and replacing them with childhood memories when things were good between her mother and father. Of Dante at his best and of the safe feeling she had only with him.

Somehow this quieted her mind until she was lost in her own thoughts and oblivious to all else. Which turned out to be a problem.

"Stop."

Lady opened her eyes to see darkness and the soft glow of candles casting on the side of Vergil's face. Except things were different now, because he was not above her, but below her and looking absolutely... mortified. His breathing was heavy, like hers, but there was something in his eyes that stunned her.

"What happened?" Lady asked finding she could not move. It was then she realized she was not only straddling his stomach but actually had him pinned to the futon by his wrists as he had her moments before. It almost made her laugh but she didn't dare with the expression on his face.

"Get off of me," he said in pointedly.

But she remained frozen in her spot just watching him because there was something new in the look he was giving her. She couldn't place it or maybe was just seeing it for the first time with how close she was to his face. Worse still she felt the urge to lean down and kiss him. The idea not even repulsing her in the least bit, but then again her mind was still fogged over with thoughts of Dante.

...or was it a shaggy haired Vergil outrageously out of character?

"Did you get it all?" Lady asked to suspend the moment. His eyes narrowed.

"Are you teasing me?" He suddenly growled.

She looked at him confused, not really sure how asking him that would be considered teasing him. Lady just wanted to know if the toxic power was out of her system. If it wasn't then it would explain her current wants. If it was...

When she did nothing but question him with her eyes he took the initiative and pushed her over so he was above her again.

"You are very ill advised to tease a devil Lady." Vergil hissed down at her.

"I'm not teasing anyone," she replied surprised at his sudden aggression. Somehow despite the fact he was holding her down that wasn't the issue here, but the look of mistrust in his eyes. Like she was doing something on purpose.

"You keep assuming I have patience for you, but it is wearing thin. I won't tolerate... this."

"Tolerate what? I didn't know I'd pushed you over. I was trying to control it."

"Control what?"

She'd walked right into that and realized it too late. Lady had once told him that she felt anxious around him, but she'd never elaborated on that. Just like last time the idea of doing so wasn't an option.

"The anxiousness. I can't help it you know." Lady grumbled unable to meet his eyes even if they were so very close.

She saw his face move back slightly out of the corner of her eyes before he sat up on his knees, dragging her up by her wrists. Lady's eyes came to his then looked down to see she was sitting before him with her legs slinging over his thighs. Then it occurred to her that she had still been holding his waist with her thighs once he'd flipped her down onto it.

"This time it is not a request but a direct order. What is this anxiousness you keep talking about?" Vergil asked in a tone too serious to be taken lightly.