S.R: Sorry about it taking so long to get caught up. As I told a few of you in replies to your reviews I had a feeling my ADHD would make it take much longer than it should for me to re-read enough of the canon DxD story to continue. I was right, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway I'd like to give a quick shout out to Imperial-samaB because without reading their stories I wouldn't have had a clue for how to go about making Issei and Vali friends like I will be trying to do in this chapter. Now, that I've said what I wanted, let's move on to the story.

Issei enjoyed the rest of the night with his family, after learning that his adoptive parents knew about the supernatural. Because he didn't want to hide anything from the two, he and Sona shared a few stories about things they'd accomplished. The adults minus Issei's adoptive mother all shared a story or two about their experiences as well. Eventually it was time for everyone to go, Sirzechs being the last one out as he told Issei there was a surprise for during the parents day.

The red haired devil didn't tell his son anything else about it, so Issei was on edge when he got to class. Eventually he noticed a few extra faces in the crowd of parents. Aside from both sets of his parents, he saw Garran's grandfather, and Serafall's bishop Ibuki, Grizelda was there as well, and most surprisingly was Azazel.

After thinking about it for a moment, Issei realized Ibuki was present to check in on Momo and Reya who were also in his class, probably in an attempt to make it so none of Sona's peerage were left out. Which made sense to him since Sona and Tsubaki had Serafall, and the other two high school students in her peerage still had their own families looking out for them. On the other hand Grizelda was just lost and looking in to ask where to find the third year classes, since she had come for parents day to check in on Xenovia who Rias had enrolled as a third year. But he had no clue why Azazel was there. As he began to question it, the teacher noticed the man standing with the parents.

"Ah, Mr. Azazel, you aren't due to actually start working as a teacher here for another few days. Why are you standing in with the parents?"

"I've got two reasons. The first is so I can try and familiarize myself with the students, and the second is because my nephew is staying with me so I decided to enroll him here. He'd be standing here with me while we wait for the paperwork to go through, but he wasn't feeling well today."

"I see. Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to introduce you to the students. Class, this is Mr. Azazel, he's being brought on as a teacher and adviser for the Occult Research Club. He'll be starting Monday, but since he's here why don't we welcome him?"

The students did exactly that, before the teacher decided to move on from their current subject which was math. She brought out molding clay and a few water based paints and a giant stack of construction paper.

"Everyone take a sheet of paper to work on, that way your desk stays clean. You can make whatever you want with the clay, or you can paint."

Most of the parents got vocal over their children at that point, saying that their kid would do this or that. A few just cheered them on by saying 'Show me what you can do', but Issei's parents all watched him with silent smiles. Because he spent a lot of time creating different kinds of art, they had no idea what he would make with the clay he grabbed.

Issei though, knew exactly what he was going to do and grabbed a larger portion of clay than normal. After sitting back down his hands went straight to work shaping the clay. Within minutes he had formed the basic shape of legs and a body. Some of the other onlooking parents where surprised at how fast he was creating his sculpture. It was like watching a video in fast forward. Ten minutes into shaping the clay he had a quadrupedal body, four thick and strong legs, a long serpentine tail with a spear shaped tip, and the neck. He was currently just shaping the head, intending to get the shape set before moving onto the wings, and then working on the details.

While Issei was busy sculpting, Garran had decided to paint. The hand holding the brush started hovering just below the middle of the paper, but off to the side so that he wasn't near the center. Quick yet smooth brush strokes brought the basic shape of a hut. The details of said hut became more and more apparent as the boy worked, the colors chosen and the shading done bringing the old stone hut to life. Moving over to a sink Garran rinsed his brush off, before coming back to his seat and getting back to work. With a light green, he began working on a circular area that housed the hut.

At this point his grandfather who was watching intently knew exactly what the boy was painting. While the man was old, he was far older than his fellow humans due to magic. Because of that he recognized his childhood home being painted by his grandson.

Around the time Garran started to work on the trees at the edge of the clearing in his painting, Issei had just finished shaping the wings on his sculpture, which the adults that knew about the supernatural recognized as Ddraig. Though only Azazel was able to truly recognize it, the others only guessing that the dragon Issei was working was Ddraig.

Meanwhile in the third year classes, Grizelda had finally found Xenovia's class and was watching over her, Rias, Akeno, and Sona alongside Serafall, and Rias's father Zeoticus. Zeoticus and Grizelda chatted amiably while trying to restrain Serafall who at that point was gushing over her little sister.

The third years had also been given art supplies to work with. Xenovia had grabbed the clay and was making a model of a holy sword, one that she hadn't even told her devil master Rias that she could use. Rias, had no idea what to make and was just staring at the clay she had on her desk. Akeno was painting her late mother, but nobody knew that besides her. Sona on the other hand was painting with a blush on her face. So far she had one side of the paper as her in a white wedding dress, and the shape of a body on the other side. For those in the know about her and Issei being together, which was everyone but the parents and teacher in the room it was really cute and slightly funny. The funny aspect of it being the fact that their stoic Student Council President was embarrassed.

Eventually lunch time came and the teens gathered on the roof to enjoy the nice day. The adults all joined causing a few scattered groups of chatter. Sirzechs and Azazel approached Issei, leading him to recall his fathers statement from the previous night.

"So what's the surprise you mentioned last night papa?"

"Well Azazel, is technically Vali's guardian so he and I have been talking about the two of you since as the Red and White Dragon Emperors you are supposed to be rivals."

"That's right. Anyway, Vali likes a good fight, but he knows and understands that not everyone is like that. We're hoping that you could talk to him and shift the focus of your rivalry towards something… less lethal than fighting. If it were possible I'd ask you to try and end the rivalry but Vali is competitive so I doubt you would be able to do that."

"Considering I don't particularly enjoy fighting, I'd be perfectly fine with that. But I don't think it's me you're trying to convince."

"You want Albion and I to be civil towards each other…. I can't truly say I'm against the thought since it's been so long I've forgotten why we were fighting in the first place. The problem is with our pride, neither of us will acknowledge the other unless our hosts are clashing in some way. It's why our hosts normally have a very intense rivalry."

"Would competitive gaming, or sports work as clashing? It's a safer form of competition but you can still trash talk each other."

Before Ddraig could give his opinion on the question asked by Sirzechs, Azazel had a communication circle appear next to his ear. As it faded Azazel just gave Issei and Sirzechs a location and said to meet them later as he was just reminded of something else he needed to do.

Walking towards Rias's queen Akeno, Azazel pulled her away from the large group for a moment.

"I don't know or really care if you trust me right now, but I'm going to speak and I both need and want you to listen very carefully."

Not sure how to take it, and knowing that Azazel could easily prevent her from getting away, she chose to sit and listen to the man.

"I know you are the daughter of my dear friend and comrade Baraquiel. I also know that he asked Rias to talk to you about letting him apologize to you for not being there… Please don't blow him off. I understand you don't want to see him, but it's my fault that it happened. He didn't leave because he wanted to, he left because I had a job for him. If you're going to be angry about it, direct that anger towards me, and let your father try and make up for it."

"Why? Why now after all this time?"

"That is a question for him to answer."

"Bring him here. I want to know...I.. I have to know."

Using his communication circle Azazel told his friend about the conversation he just had, and asked the man to come and step in. Well more like ordered, since he said "Baraquiel, get your ass over here and talk with your daughter already." Within moments they group of two became a group of three.

"Akeno I… I'm so sorry I wasn't there when I needed to be."

"I can understand that. Azazel told me why you left, and I'm not mad about that. I'm mad about the fact you didn't try and find me. You didn't come back!"

"When I found out what happened I was devastated… I didn't feel like I had the right to be near you let alone be a father to you since I wasn't there when you needed me the most. I've checked in on you occasionally, but every time I even thought about approaching you I froze. I felt like I didn't deserve to be your father anymore. Hell if Azazel hadn't pushed me to try and talk to you when the idea of the faction meeting came up, I probably wouldn't have pulled myself together enough to try."

"Well my old friend, I couldn't just stand by and watch you mope anymore. Besides with the faction meeting to bring peace I figured this would be the best chance you got to speak to her."

"I… I'm still mad at you. But… I'll give you a chance."

Azazel smiled as he left the two to talk things out. Eventually lunch ended and everyone went back to what they were doing before, the teens all groaning as the school day dragged on. However because Koneko was unofficially adopted to be Issei's younger sister, for the afternoon both sets of parents left the second year classroom to check in on her in the first year classroom.

Once the school day ended everyone went about business as usual except for Issei and Sirzechs who decided to check out the place Azazel had mentioned to them earlier. As it turns out the place was Azazel's. Since the fallen-angel had decided to stay in Kuoh once the peace treaty was formalized, he bought the place for him and Vali to live in. Mostly because he still needed to keep an eye on Vali, who decided that he wanted to stay in Kuoh.

"Oh hey there Sirzechs, Issei. Welcome to my new home."

"It's a nice place."

"Yeah. Besides I think you'll like it here in Kuoh."

With the greetings out of the way Azazel lead them to the living room where Vali was currently waiting. Issei walked right on in and sat down beside the silver haired boy while the two adults watched from a distance. They knew that it would be up to the boys to get the two Heavenly Dragons to be civil and stop fighting while their current hosts were alive.

Vali was sitting on the couch his right arm resting on the side, and his left leg crossed over his right.

He turned his head towards Issei when the brown haired boy sat down.

"What's up, Red?"

"Please don't call me that. Especially since I'd rather not have anything to do with Ddraig and Albion's fight."

"I know. I've heard a lot about how different you are compared to his past hosts. I'd like to say I'm different from Albion's previous hosts, but I do like to fight."

"I don't. That's not to say I won't fight to protect others and maintain peace. I just don't think fighting should be for fun."

"There's nothing wrong with that. Hell it's probably a good thing you feel that way. We'd probably already be fighting if that weren't the case."

"True. Honestly though? I don't think it's a bad idea to have a rival. Just not one that I'm supposed to actually fight with. I'd rather compete with you."

"Competition, brings out improvement in most cases. Rivals are fueled by the desire to be better than each other and constantly improve and grow more capable. It's not a bad idea. But what would we compete in?"

"Well, I'm not much of a sports person so that's off the table. Art isn't really something you could compete in either..."

"There are competitions in music, but I'm not much of a musician. All that really leaves us would be games."

"Games would be a god choice. After all if we were to pick a fighting game like say, Super Smash Bros. We could still trash talk each other."

"Works for me. But why stop there? Why not have multiple games that we are rivals in."

"Sure."

After a moment they stood up and Vali led Issei to the game room that Azazel had set up. Even though they agreed to play multiple games, the two started with Super Smash Bros. Since it was the only game to be be mentioned by name. Meanwhile Sirzechs and Azazel both breathed a sigh of relief, happy that they wouldn't have to hold the two down and prevent them from fighting.

"I've got to hand it to them, those two have good heads on their shoulders."

"You've got that right Azazel. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually got Ddraig and Albion to reconcile."

S.R: There we go. See ya'll next time.