Jackpot

"Mum," a damp Dante called as he wandered into the house during a water fight with his father and brother in the back garden, "can we get a dog?"

Eva looked up from the magazine on the table that she had been reading. "For the twentieth time this week; no."

"'kay." He replied, went into the kitchen to refill his super soaker and then rejoined the battle raging on the lawn.

Sparda was holding his ground well, seeing as how he was bigger, older and a trained warrior while Vergil was…well…drenched…he just didn't like using anything with a trigger but he wasn't about to let his brother best him.

The fight continued and eventually a very out of breath Sparda had to call a time out to refill his own water gun. As he moved over to the outside tap he could hear the whisperings of a conspiracy forming behind him as well as some slight rustling. By the time he was finished and had turned around his sons were nowhere in sight.

He judged that they had dived into the thick hedge that surrounded the boundaries of the garden. So they were trying for a little ambush attack, eh? Crawling around under cover, were they? Oh, Eva was just going to loooove them when she saw the mud.

Standing with his back facing the house to get a sweeping view of all three sides of the hedge he waited for them to hop out…only to hear the scuffing of trainers behind him and a dual cry of "Jackpot!"

Whirling around he was caught by two super charged streams of water directly to the face. Dropping his gun in surprise he held up his hands and sank to his knees in defeat. "Mercy, alright you win. Take pity, I'm exhausted." And upon that statement he flopped back against the grass.

The brothers shared a high five but Dante's elation at their father's submission was short lived as Vergil shot him in the chest.

"Agh! Traitor!"

"I'm just being strategic."

"Eat this!"

"Not likely!"

"Stop dodging!"

Sparda sat up on his elbows and watched his son's duke out the victory between them. Trying to keep the two of them occupied was very tiring…maybe it was time he talked to Eva about getting them the pet they had been bugging both parents for recently.

-Later, During The Night-

"No." Eva said flatly, rolling over and turning her back on her husband and tucking herself more comfortably into bed.

Sparda, lying by her side, leaned over to try and look her in the eye. "Oh come on, think about it. It'll teach them some responsibility…and give me a break."

"Awww, is the big bad demon feeling his age?" she cooed, rolling back over and snuggling against him.

"Don't mock me when I'm being serious." He said grumpily, refusing to return the cuddle she was giving him.

Eva sighed. "Alright, I see your point but…a dog? Why not start them off with a goldfish or a hamster?"

"Hamsters barely last two years and you can't really pet a fish. Though I don't think that would stop them."

"Ok then; but I'm not clearing up after it."

Sparda smiled happily, wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. "You know it makes sense."

"Mmm…" she mumbled sleepily.

Planting a chaste kiss on her forehead they settled down to rest.

-One Week Later-

It was mid-day on a Saturday, meaning the twins had only just woken up from their video game marathon induced comas. Vergil was surfing the TV channels for some decent cartoons while Dante crammed another slice of golden syrup smothered toast into his mouth.

Eva sat at the table sipping a cup of coffee and watching him devour his tooth rotting breakfast before glancing at the clock. Sparda had gone out about an hour ago to go and get a paper. On a bad day that might take 15 minutes tops…so what was he up to?

Ten minutes on she was rather worried and wishing he had taken his mobile with him.

After another agonising ten minutes she heard his keys in the front door and then familiar footsteps. He wandered into the room wearing a smug grin with his paper under one arm while under the other was-

"Oh wow! A puppy!" Dante yelled, leaping from his chair and sprinting over closely followed by his brother.

"Oh dear god." Eva mumbled as she watched Sparda set the black furred puppy on the ground whereupon it was cuddled, stroked and patted to within an inch of its life. It looked something like a malamute or husky…more lupine than canine. "Where did you get it?"

Sparda turned to her with a sweet smile. "This old lady I talk to every so often had a husky that produced an unwanted litter. The pregnancy was a complete surprise. She needed to get rid of the pups as she's moving away in a couple of days. She was nice enough to give me one when I said I was looking for a pet."

"She just let you have it?"

"Well, yes. It…um…hasn't been immunised or castrated or anything…so…yeah...

She shook her head. "For some reason I can't bring myself to believe you."

Upon hearing this, the twins grabbed the puppy securely between them. "Please can we keep 'im? Please, please, please?" Dante wined.

"We'll look after him, we promise. Take him for walks and everything." Vergil added, ever the tactician. "Even clean up the poop."

Mumbling under her breath she gave in. "Alright, but just for a little while. A trial period. If after a couple of weeks it's been ok we can keep him for good. But if not then he's going to a shelter."

"Awww, but mum-"

"No 'but's, Dante. That's the deal, take it or leave it."

"Taking."

Eva then turned to her husband with an accusatory glare. "You'd better do dome shopping then hadn't you?"

He nodded. "Food, bowel, collar, I get the idea."

"I can't believe I agreed." She sighed, shaking her head as he went off to grab his car keys.

The boys encouraged the pup out into the garden where it had the ability to go as crazy as it liked without breaking anything. It was an energetic, enthusiastic animal that appreciated the space to run.

Dante was beaming. "This is so great. We finally bugged them into it! Oh yeah!"

Vergil smirked. They had planned and executed the 'pet plan' together with professional determination. "We have to name it…"

"Yeah, but what though? Hey, I know; call 'im Jackpot! He's our biggest victory after all."

Vergil agreed. "Yeah, cool. Maybe the first of many." Both boys had actually expected to have a minor war over the name. They couldn't help but laugh about being on the same wavelength for once in their lives.

Dante scooped up a fallen stick on the ground under the tree in one corner. With one swift over arm swing he tossed is across the garden. "Go fetch, boy."

Vergil sniggered. "He's probably too young to know what you want."

But Jackpot did seem to know how to play fetch…and got rather excited about it. After seeing the stick twirl through the air he went racing after it and burst into flames! Jackpot doubled in size in a second and its soft coal coloured fur was replaced with blazing black and red fire.

Jackpot picked up the stick delicately in its mouth and trotted back to its new masters where he set it on the ground in front of them, leaving scorched paw prints on the grass as he went. He sat down obediently and waited for the stick to be tossed again, blazing tail sweeping back and forth happily behind it and forked tongue lolling out of its mouth, filled with big sharp teeth.

Vergil and Dante gaped.

Jackpot yapped cutely at them and as quick as they had come the flames were gone, leaving him looking like a normal puppy again, piercing merle eyes staring lovingly at the humans before him.

"Uh, Dante…"

"Yeah, Verge?"

"Dad lied about where he got him, didn't he."

"Uh…yup."

"Are we going to tell mum that dad brought home a hellhound?"

"Uh…nope."

"Didn't think so." Vergil said, and picked up the charred stick.

End

Author's Note – I may well do a second part to this…there's so much more I could do with lil Jackpot, the hellpuppy.

Yay! 50 plus reviews party! Woo-hoo! Cake and ice cream for all! Hell, you can have cookies too! You're wonderful, thank you so much!

Chicken-chan is in the process of drawing Jackpot; I'll put a link to it on the next chapter.

Anyway, here are some replies:

darkshadowgirl – I love the babysitter idea! Mwahahaha. (Scheming already)

SaiyAsianMaki - Yes, I'm going to do a Halloween one…I'm doing it right now…

Bustahead – Wow…thatsa lotta reviews in one go. Oooh, I feel praised. Be expecting an e-mail soon as I am very curious to hear your ideas…I just have to convince Yahoo to let me log in.

I shall go for now and I hope to see you soon.