Bless You

The boys were in school and detesting every last second of it and Eva had just come home from a few errands she had needed to run. Sparda had been asleep when she had left and she expected him to be up and awake by now, but upon her return she found that this was not the case in the slightest.

She called out his name but upon hearing no reply and finding no sign of his presence downstairs she ventured upwards in search of him. She reached the landing just in time to see him toddle out of the bathroom wrapped up in a duvet and dressed only in a t-shirt and boxer shorts. He waddled into the bedroom, over to the bed and flopped down; curling himself up so that all could be seen on the bed was a large hump of covers with a wild tuft of bright white hair sticking out of one end.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asked, crossing over to the lump on the bed.

The tuft of hair twirled as he shook his head, still snuggled up in the warmth of his eider down and cotton cocoon. "Doe….." a small muffled word was produced.

"Pardon?"

His head wriggled out. His nose was bright red and sore, his eyes dark and his skin pasty… "I'b dot well…" he mumbled.

"But you've never had so much as a runny nose before…ever. I though that being a devil meant you couldn't get colds." She laid a hand on his forehead: it was burning hot. "And you were fine yesterday."

He tried to sniff but his nose was far to blocked to comply. Closing his eyes he curled the duvet tightly around him. "I dunno…did feel a bit off yesterday but I didn't say anyfig…ohhhh…my head."

It seemed that being a devil did indeed protect him from most of the ailments a human may suffer. Most colds brushed straight over him without leaving so much as a tickly throat. However, it would also seem that this meant the only illnesses he could suffer would be the very worst of flu's that may well leave him bedridden for a week with a pounding migraine and having to leave the bathroom door open because he was permanently nauseous. It was a small blessing that he didn't have diarrhoea as well.

Eva began to stroke his hair comfortingly. "Can I get you anything?"

"Ub….yeah….can I hab some painkillers?..." he sniffed. "Nurofen, morphine, horse tranquilisers, a friggin' shotgun…anyfig to stob duh headache." He whimpered and buried his head back in the covers.

"Of course." She said kindly and was about to go and get him some paracetamol when he sneezed very violently, producing a dark flash of red light and she was left staring at him in all his demonic glory.

He turned over, pillow impaled on one curled horn "Damn it." He mumbled. "Sowry."

"Uh…oh dear…I don't think a paracetamol is going to sort this…"

Sparda sneezed again and this time all of the lights in the house lit up and blew out. He groaned loudly and flopped back. He was ill and even though the largest portion of his power had long since been sealed away…he didn't have much control over things when his body was going haywire with a virus. The unsolicited expenditure of devil energies only made him feel worse.

-Later That Day-

The boys were delivered home by their kindly neighbour Barbara as requested by Eva on the phone as she was tending to her poorly husband and couldn't pick them up. When the twins were inside and Barbara was, thankfully, returning next door they saw their mother chasing something around the house that looked like a clear version of 'Flubber'…it was the result of Sparda's sneeze into a glass of water.

"What's going on?" Vergil yelped as the thing shot up trouser leg and out of the collar of his shirt. "Eagh!"

"You're father is ill," She said, smacking the thing with a hardback encyclopaedia, "and under quarantine."

The boy's looked at each other with a worried expression.

Another loud sneeze rumbled through the house, followed by the water-thing exploding with a sad squeak all over the carpet, a flock of passing pigeons falling down dead around the house and a muffled cry of "Sowry!"

"This had better be over soon." Eva sighed, while going off to get a mop.

End

Author's Note – Oooh, this is a short one…I'm sorry…it seemed longer to me when I was typing it but now it's ready to post it seems to have shrunk. Well I'm already working on the next one. Hope you're all still reading and enjoying this because it's still fun to write. Do not fret! There will be more Jackpot! I just needed to get this out of my head before I ploughed on with the hellpuppy…he'll be back soon. Thank you all again for the reviews; you have no idea how happy they make me…well…ok…maybe you do, but that's not going to stop me saying it hahahaha! Eh-hem.

Meirelle - No, they are in no particular order, but I would like to keep Growing Pains focused on the family when the boys are quite young…maybe I could do a separate fic with them in high school.

BiOhAzArD – C-chan says Sparda should hire a demonic babysitter after all of the human ones fail miserably.

P.S to all - no word on the Jackpot picture yet, so when I know you'll know. Maybe next post.