The following story was going to be more than a oneshot. The general idea was Dante, to soothe a savage demonic child, has to tell her fairytales. The fun being that Lady, Trish, Vergil and even Nero may have to tell one as well and they will be told...using the DMC cast as the leads...lol So for example, Beauty and the Beast starring Lady and Vergil, Sleeping Beauty with Trish and Dante, or my personal favorite Little Red Riding Hood starring Dante and Lucia...lmao

Every character (Eva and Sparda too!), villain, and possibly even lesser enemies will get their 15 minutes of fame. Plus it's being told by the DMC cast so the writing, it was my hope, would fit their personalities. Can you imagine feminist Belle? (Lady) Bahahahahha!

So that was the general idea of it. What do you think?

Once Upon a Time...

Chapter 1

He was dead tired, his head down sideways on his desk as he breathed in deeply. He thought that if he managed to doze off maybe they'd take pity on him.

"Dante!"

Or maybe not...

Lady came walking downstairs with a full cup of water in her hand and a tired look on her face. Her eyes found the devil hunter and an impatient sigh pushed its way past her lips.

"You're NOT getting out of this Dante!"

He finally lifted his head, the coaster under his face leaving a round imprint in his cheek as he gazed mournfully at Lady.

"Please, just 15 minutes...," he whined as he let his forehead smash back down onto the desk. "Owww..."

"NO! You were the one who took this job, and now you're trying to stick this on us?"

She marched over and pulled at his arm to get him into a standing position.

"All right, all right. Lay off already," he growled in a sleep deprived voice. He adjusted his shirt and slowly headed in the direction of the stairway.

Shrieks come from hell echoed through the upstairs hall and Dante cringed at the sound. He could sense the distress of the demonic creature and the sound of its scream did nothing to calm his already rattled nerves. He stepped in front of the door that seemed to vibrate with the noise within and it caused him to slump mournfully as he contemplated going in there.

Finally he took a deep breath, turned the door knob and entered.

"Dante!" a shrill voice called in his direction, a woeful voice suddenly filled with such hope it was scary. Then the thing leapt at him and Dante only stood still as it wrapped it arms about his waist in a hug. "You promised you wouldn't leave, but you weren't here when I woke up!"

Dante sighed and patted the small demonic child on her head of dark hair, failing to find his voice as bright silver eyes watched him closely before burying themselves into his shirt.

"Alessa, I just went to check the doors were locked," he lied to her.

She had been placed into his able hands two days ago by her shiftless Uncle for a single night stay. Dante had agreed to keep her for only 2 hours as payment for a gambling debt he owed the man. Problem was her Uncle never came back to pick her up.

Dante hadn't much cared what became of the little bugger, because as far as he was concerned he had lived up to his obligations once that two hour period was over with. Lady and Trish however had practically torn him apart for being so heartless. Vergil had agreed with Dante at least. Lady said that only proved their point further.

He had considered dumping her in an orphanage, but the girl wasn't exactly the typical 10 year old. Alessa had jet black hair, silver eyes and two horns poking out of the top of her head. To say she was "special" was an understatement.

Worse yet she was clingy, especially towards Dante. The abandonment by her only living relative seemed to only heighten her fear of being left alone. Hence why Dante was exhausted. She wanted him close by every second of every day, even refusing to bathe unless he stood outside the bathroom door with it open a crack. Just enough so she could poke her head out, call to him and have him stick his hand in to prove he was still there. Eventually he called Nero over to do it for him, but Nero had stupidly stuck the WRONG hand in and the girl's scream had broken almost every mirror upstairs.

Trish sat on the bed where Alessa had launched herself from with a pretty smile at the sight of the two of them...bonding. Dante gave her a half-assed glare to emote just how tired her was.

"You need to go back to bed," he said as he pried the girl from him.

"You have to stay here then!" She growled causing Dante to lift an eyebrow at her. The whole "demonic child" thing took on a new meaning with this brat. When angry she would transform into an incontrollable little beast, literally. Dante longed for crying brats in restaurants, or at misbehaving children at the movies. They were cute in comparison to Alessa. With a single scream she could bring all of them to their knees, especially the people of demonic origin who already had sensitive hearing. She was known to bite, kick, and claw at anyone she saw as a threat between her and Dante.

Dante pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to hold onto his last nerve desperately.

"What will it take to get you settled?" He asked in a mock "nice" tone.

"Ummmmm... I want a story."

"A... story? Trish, do we have any story books?" Dante asked as he glanced over at his partner. She blinked twice at him, looked thoughtful then shook her blonde head. "Well shit."

"You said a bad word!" Alessa gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.

At that moment Lady walked in and smacked the back of his head.

"Watch your damn mouth Dante!" She said frustrated as she handed Alessa a full cup of water.

"It's too cold now." Alessa said meekly as she stared up at Lady, who looked like she was about to strap the kid to her rocket launcher.

"Yeah Lady," he added in retaliation from being hit. He stepped out of her way as she turned to glare daggers at him before leaving the room with a death grip on the glass.

"Story!" Alessa said happily as she hopped onto her bed and curled up in Trish's lap.

"I don't have any story books kid."

"Make something up then! Doesn't matter to me!"

"Well, I could tell you about the time I... no... too bloody. Or there was the time I found that girl in...," he began, but Trish gave him a don't you dare look. "Ahhh, maybe not that one either."

"You don't know any fairytales from memory?" Trish offered to try and help the process along.

"Well yeah, but I don't remember them the entire way through," he shrugged.

"Fill in the pieces as you go then, I'm sure she won't mind. Would you?" Trish asked the girl.

"Nope! Just want a story."

Dante thought about it for a second, trying to pull from memory any story that might've still lingered from his childhood. He figured what the hell. The kid would be asleep before long and probably wouldn't remember it by the next morning anyway.

"You have to start with Once Upon a Time." Alessa chimed in as he thought which story to go with.

It sounded so girly to begin it that way, but if it got the kid to shut up then he would risk it.