"Dad, do you love me?"

Dante lowered his magazine and stared at the white haired boy sprawled on the floor whose attention quickly sidetracked to the man sitting on the couch in front of him rather than the coloring book and crayons on his hands. This was going to be interesting.

"What do you want?" Vergil replied as he ripped his eyes of the yellowed pages of the book he was reading and focused on the child that now took a sitting position in front of him.

"Nothing." The boy replied as he fidgeted with a blue colored crayon on his small hand.

Vergil sighed and closed his book, deciding that the matter at hand was more important than his reading. "Nero, what did you do this time?" He asked, sounding displeased.

"Nothing!" The boy quickly retorted, his voice lacing with desperation.

Vergil stared at his son's face before he furrowed his brows. "How many times do I have to tell you not to enter my room without my permission?"

Dante snickered and removed his feet from the surface of his desk to lean forward on his chair and watch the scene unfold in front of him with a mischievous interest.

"I didn't sneak into your room." Nero replied as he scribbled on the faces of the cartoon characters on his coloring book. "You lock the door." He mumbled with a frown.

Vergil scanned his son's actions before he shook his head. "I want you to place the book back in the bookshelf. I recall telling you not to try to read them, boy."

"I don't like your books, they're ugly. Why would I grab them?"

"You always do. Do you take me for a fool?"

"No." Nero replied.

"Then why are you lying?" Vergil pressed, making Nero groan.

"I'm not lying; I just asked you a question! It's not my fault you're old and can't hear anymore." He answered nonchalant as he continued to color.

Oh, Dante loved that kid's mouth. It was partially his fault that he was so blunt at times; the kid spent a little too much time around Devil May Cry, but the bottom line was that Vergil took the full blame for thinking that he could do a good job taking care of him. He appreciated the thought but they all knew it just wouldn't turn out the way Vergil wanted.

"You are grounded." Vergil replied flatly before picking up his book.

"No. I don't want to." Nero retorted and dropped his crayons to fold his arms in an attempt to look upset. To Dante, he just looked comical.

"It's not up to you."

"I don't like you anymore." Nero commented with fake despair, hoping to get a remorseful reaction from Vergil.

"Good." It definitely wasn't the answer he wanted to hear.

Nero snorted and continued to color ruthlessly before he stopped and stared at his father.

"Do you love me?"

Vergil glanced at him before focusing on his book. "No."

Nero frowned. "Why not?"

"I'm simply not overly fond of you." Vergil replied with the slightest trace of a smirk on his lips.

After a period of silence, Nero spoke up. "You remind me of a cat, they are mean."

"You can't expect them to be nice to you if you pull their tails."

Nero frowned; oblivious that Vergil was speaking about his usual treatment to the furry animals. "I never pulled your ass."

The sentence made Dante crack up, earning a glare from Vergil and a confused stare from Nero.

"Sorry." Dante said with a grin, speaking untruthfully.

Nero ignored Dante's stare as he ripped the poorly colored drawing from the coloring book, giving it a long stare to admire his work before he left it on his father's lap. "I love you."

Vergil carefully set his book aside and picked up the drawing, a smirk etching into his features as he found all the flaws and odd coloring in places where there shouldn't be any color at all. Yet, he said nothing as he folded the 'piece of art' and placed it between the last page and the back cover of the book he was reading.

"Can you buy me some ice cream?"

Vergil sighed. So that is what the boy wanted all along. "After you clean your mess. We shall go home afterwards and I will not come back for anything you forgot to pack."

"Softie." Dante thought with amusement.

Nero took little time gathering his belongings and sloppily placing them in the little red backpack he always carried around. Vergil heard the already familiar sound of crayons snapping as they were roughly shoved in the backpack and swore that he wouldn't buy Nero more of those damned things.

"Your jacket." He reminded his son, who nodded viciously and ran to retrieve it from the kitchen. He waved absently at Dante, who grinned in response as he watched the pair leave through the double doors of Devil May Cry with Vergil awkwardly gripping his son's hand.

"Never gets old." He commented to himself before he placed his feet back on the desk and a magazine on his face, determined to get a few hours of sleep. That kid sure was noisy.

A little too late for Father's day, huh?

Anyways, thank you for reading! I hope you liked it.

Disclaimer: Devil May Cry and its characters belong to Capcom.