A/N: So yeah, I know I'm late again, trying to get on top of things right now, shutting up and typing…

Disclaimer: Yup.

Once Upon a Time

Vergil leaned back against the tree in the backyard. That fight had been harder than he had anticipated… He grit his teeth and put a hand to his shoulder, it was pretty badly roughed up, worse than he intended to get.

"Anthony!" Madeline called from the porch, he looked over to her, she looked horrified at his condition. "What on earth-?!"

"Didn't dodge fast enough." He said before she could begin to panic any further. She had come to mean a lot to him, despite being human, despite being weaker than he, but all the same she had trouble with his need to fight, his need to gain more power. He could see the fear in her eyes sometimes, when he did something that wasn't human, wasn't within the world that she knew.

"Anthony…" she said quietly as he stood, the wound was closing quickly now, no longer splitting open with every movement.

"I need to get cleaned up, I told Ernest that I would meet him at his house later." Yamato was still thrumming excitement into his mind, still thrilled at bathing in the blood of devils again, Vergil couldn't help but smile at the ancient monster in his mind, despite living currently in peace, the devil arm wouldn't let him forget about his drive, his desire for revenge, the burning rage in the depths of his heart. He passed by Madeline without another word, though he could feel her eyes on the back of his head as he heaved himself up the stairs. He was exhausted, but in a very good sort of way, he might've been hurt more than he intended in that fight but it wasn't as though he had lost, he'd still taken down the devil in the end.

The young half devil sighed as the water beat down on his back, washing away the fight and calming his still singing nerves. He couldn't help but get nervous, every time he went in to fight a demon, he still flashed back to that moment, those three glowing orbs staring down at him, judging him on what he was alone. Vergil shivered and roughly started scrubbing at his hair, Yamato pulling on his strength and bravery of that moment, of coming out of hiding to protect his mother and brother, if he hadn't his brother most certainly would've died… Dante… the older twin wondered if his brother was still alive, he had certainly made it out of the house but had he made it far? Had he survived the hordes that must've remained long after setting the house ablaze, he didn't know. He wanted desperately for his brother to still be alive, to find him would prove he wasn't so alone in this world. Sure, he had Madeline but she didn't understand him, understand a devil, what it was like to be both a devil and a human at the same time. No, until he found proof, it would be easier to assume Dante had died trying to get away, it would be easier to move on that way.

-The Boy in Blue-

Madeline listened from the kitchen as the shower ran, hearing as Anthony knocked a shampoo bottle from the shelf and sighed, running her hands through her hair. What was she supposed to do? She wasn't cut out for this, this wasn't something you could just go to the library and read about. Sure she had asked Anthony as many questions as he was willing to answer about the books that they had scavenged from his father's library and a couple of them were in English and a couple she was pretty sure were in Latin but she had neither the patience, nor the experience to try and translate those… This wasn't something that she felt capable of handling. The boy was so wild sometimes, that look in his eye when he came home, covered in blood and gore and smiling like he'd just won the lottery, he looked at her like he expected her to be proud but she didn't know how to react. It was like when she was a kid and her dog had dragged in a dead possum and sat in the middle of the room wagging its tail like it deserved a treat for killing the thing. The older woman sighed again, pulling a bottle down from the shelf and mixing herself a sturdy drink, she was going to need it if it was just going to be herself and her thoughts again tonight.

"What am I supposed to do?" she muttered taking a sip and making a slight face as the liquor burned down her throat. "It's not like I can just call up my mom and say that 'y'know that kid I adopted, well he's half demon and I didn't know if you had any advice for me'. Yeah, right, she'd probably just laugh at me and tell me that I was quite the little hellion myself." The brunette laughed humorlessly and sat back down at the table, looking out the window and into the yard, noticing the blood coating the tree and hoping that it would rain to wash away the evidence that the boy she was caring for had been hurt. Anthony came down the stairs then, back of his hair still a little wet and looking just like any other eleven year old boy in that moment, if you ignored the fact that his hair was as white as untouched snow.

"I'm going to head out now…" he started to say and then paused, noticing that something that she did not. "Are you okay?" she noticed that he didn't address her as Madeline, and neither as mom, she knew that it had to be hard for him to put her in that position and she didn't want to force him either.

"Am I a good enough mom for you?" she asked, and as soon as the words left her lips she was wondering if that alcohol had gotten to her head already. Anthony paused, dropping his bag on the floor and wandering over to her chair.

"What are you talking about?" he said quietly, pulling a chair close to hers and sitting in it. This was one of those moments that she felt like she was talking to a wise adult instead of a young child.

"I just… I don't know what to do about you sometimes. Sometimes you…"

"I'm a devil, I'm supposed to scare you." He said, his voice warping as more of his heritage showed through. She looked up and saw glowing green where his normal blue eyes were.

"Yes but I'm your parent now…" a small gentle hand came to rest on hers

"And you are a good mom. For me." Madeline felt her throat close up and without warning she pulled the boy into a tight hug.

"Thank you." She said as he squirmed, never being one for many hugs or for much physical contact at all. She let him go and he eyed her with slight suspicion.

"Don't do anything stupid." He said as he grabbed his bag and started for the door again.

"Same goes for you young man, I don't need you tracking more demon guts all over my nicely cleaned kitchen." He turned for the door and she was sure that she heard something that sounded like 'it was only once.' And the door closed behind him. She leaned back in her chair, taking another sip of her drink and feeling much better about the whole situation.

-The Boy in Blue-

Vergil shook his head as he headed for Ernest's house, that was odd, Madeline was never one to get extremely sentimental. She mostly kept her thoughts to herself but just then… he knew that she was often uncomfortable with his demonic heritage, and he though he wished she could understand, his mom had told both he and Dante many a time that as devils they would frighten humans and that was just a fact of life. He never thought that Madeline would blame herself as a bad parent for what he thought of as completely natural and as just a part of what he needed to do to keep himself sane. True he enjoyed hunting down devils and demons but it also brought him a sense of calm that he just didn't really get any other way. He hoped that he wasn't going to come home to find her raving drunk. He'd found his mom like that once, after she thought that he and Dante had gone to sleep, he'd snuck downstairs for a glass of water and she had been in the library with a bunch of his father's old things, sobbing and only pausing to take a drink here or there. She'd taken him into her arms and told him about his father who he only remembered vaguely.

Mostly he remembered the feeling of his father's power, it was so strong, even though it was dimmed and split off into the demon realm. He also remembered the strength that it had taken his father to leave them, to lead that demon away from their house all those years ago. His mom told him stories about how they'd met, told him how his father was always so proud of them, his little boys, his little devils. Vergil shook his head to clear the memories away and stepped up to Ernest's house. The younger boy answered the door quickly.

"Sorry I'm late," Vergil said "I had to take a shower."

"It's fine, come on, I got all the stuff so we can make a time capsule, you said that we'd make one so that someday we can open it up together and show Miss Margaret and all of our other friends all the stuff we thought was cool today." Vergil laughed a little bit, though he wished now that he'd done something like this before, so he could look back and see the happier times when his mother was still around, when things didn't seem so hard and lonely. He smiled at the mention of Miss Margaret though, she was by far his favorite teacher ever, she was so kind and such a good teacher. She even let him work ahead sometimes and if that wasn't the best teacher ever, well then Vergil wasn't sure what counted.

"Come on, let's go!"

"Hold on boys, don't you want a picture of the two of you to put with the rest of the stuff?" Ernest's mom asked and both boys paused, neither of them had thought of that but it would take ages for them to go and get the picture developed…

"Mom…" Ernest whined

"Alright fine, but at least let your mother get a good one of you two out in front of the tree for my own sake."

"Mom you just took pictures of us with Miss Margaret at the science fair!" Vergil rolled his eyes and stood posed for the picture.

-The Boy in Blue-

The boys made their time capsule, laughed and joked around and soon enough it was time for bed. As they lay, laughing and giggling and eventually falling asleep something snaked around in the back of Vergil's mind. In the middle of the night it flared and he jackknifed straight up, looking around wildly and ready to draw Yamato at a moment's notice. The feeling pulsed again and then once more, quieter. Vergil sat, waiting for it to come again, he sat for hours, just waiting, and waiting…

A/N: I'm hoping this long chapter will make up for not posting last week and being late this week, now on to the next chapter for Forever and a Day, here's to hoping that one passes faster…

Till next time,

-Winged Element